Angel's Majesty
by Animagious-White-Tiger
Summary: Do you believe in angels? How would Riddick react if he met one face to face? How would she react if she found out about a few secrets from Riddick's past? R&R. Enjoy.
1. That Fateful Day

**Disclaimer: However much I wish I did, I don't. So please just allow me to manipulate the characters the way I see fit for my own little world, and don't worry about the one's you've never heard of before, they came with me, and they will leave with me. Hope everyone enjoys the new adventure for Riddick.**

Her twentieth birthday had been only a week ago, and she had already fended off her fiftieth suitor since she had turned sixteen. No man that her father had seen fit for her had sparked any interest in her, or they had caused her to react quite violently, once she had found out their priorities in life, when they had taken a chance to publicly proposing to her.

Her wild spirit had always been a problem for her, but she continued to hope for either, a chance to find a man she could love as much as he loved her, or that there would one day be a prince to whom her temper and wild spirit would finally yield to. not that it would be completely lost, as was most of the suitors wishes, but merely calmed.

Because her father had to be off world during her birthday, he took her to the space station on the border of the system for a shopping excursion. It was here she met him.  
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How does an ex-escaped convict/murderer, savior to a young girl, holyman and his family, and an entire planet, retired Lord Marshal of the Necromungers, now set on a good path with a leader truly set in the right frame of mind, sole surviving Prince of an otherwise dead planet spend his days in solitude aboard his ship?

He spends it either fine tuning his ship, evading mercs who happen upon his position, or researching specks for a job on whatever planet he happens to be near at the time.

It just so happened that Riddick needed to stop for some much needed rest and to refuel his ship at the same station where Zoe's father took her for the shopping spree.

Riddick had begun to feel twice his age lately. He almost never slept, and he spent the majority of his waking hours doing jobs for money he could send to Lajjun and Zeeza, Imam's widow and daughter, or running from mercs.

All he wanted was to spend a couple of days resting, not having to think about his ship or the mercs that might have "picked up on his trail".

Riddick managed to spend his entire first day unconscious in a room, while the station's mechanics did an overhaul on his ship. He spent the next day gathering supplies, and attempting to avoid detection by security, but when that didn't go as planned, he acquired a hostage.  
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Zoe had arrived the night before, but because that shops were closed, all she did was get something to eat and window shop, deciding which ones to visit in the morning.

Since her father and her had never really been close, neither felt horrible that the other never really wanted to spend time together. So Zoe was given an extensive credit line throughout the entire space station and allowed to shop at whatever stores she wanted, and get however much she wanted at each store. The only stipulation being that she meet with her father for lunch on the promenade.

Zoe set out early the next morning. She wanted to make sure she could hit every store she wanted and get all of the things she had wanted before her mandatory lunch date with her father, that way she could have extra free time to be free on the space station.

She wasn't usually an over-indulgent type of person. Zoe was usually very modest in the things she bought for herself, always the more mature of her sister siblings when it came to money and clothes. But why deny herself when her father was giving her an all out shopping spree? It had been the least he could do since he spent her birthday on another planet, arranging a marriage to some prince whom she wouldn't get to meet until the week before the wedding. Her father decided that it was time she was married off and well taken care of, and he wasn't giving her a choice in the matter.

Today, Zoe threw caution to the wind and shopped til she dropped. By the time she had to meet up with her father, she had bought nearly a months worth of clothes, none of which her father would approve of. She had everything on her list, right down to the undergarments and shoes. Not that she was going to tell her father, but she had fully planned to give away all of her old clothes back home so she had room for her new clothes. She may have hit a glutinous point, but she wasn't by nature.

Well, being so bogged down with packages, some placed in bigger bags so she wouldn't have so many to carry, and her father wouldn't make as bad a face at her, she hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings. Most of the promenade had begun to clear out to a point, and Zoe only thought that now she had a clear path to get over to her father's table for lunch before she "hit" the other side of the station's shops.

Zoe just happened to be the one and only person who crossed his path at that moment, unaware anything was wrong until she was wrapped in massive arms with a shiv at her throat, and a man whispering, "Don't worry. When all of this is over you'll get to go free, but right now, I need you to help me get to freedom."


	2. A Hostage Situation

**Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the characters that came from the movies. The only things I own are Zoe, her family, the planets in the Zealion System, and the situations that happen in this story that you haven't seen before. Enjoy.**

Zoe had been so stunned by the entire event, that she was numb from head to toe, and she couldn't really move. She couldn't even drop her packages.

By the time she could register anything, she was being placed in a room and the door was being sealed shut. She felt the ship take off in a rather hurried manner, and then nothing again.

She could hear the loud thud of combat boots on metal and knew that he was coming back to where she was. Fear began to rise in her, having forgotten what he had said to her earlier, trying to figure out what he had planned for her. Torture, rape, or even death because she may know something that could get him caught by mercs.

As the door opened, she made a run for it, hoping to catch him off guard enough to get by him. That was a far fetched plan. She found that out the hard way when Riddick's arm shot out and grabbed her around her waist and swung her around back into the room.

"Whoa! Where do you think you're going?" he said in her ear.

"You can't do this to me! I'm a member of the Royal Family! My father won't let you get away with this! He'll hunt you down and blow you to smithereens!"

"First, I'm not from this system, so I could care less if you are from the Royal Family. Second, I'm sure your father wouldn't just come here and blow this ship up with you on board."

"Wanna bet?" she said under her breath, without a drop of sarcasm.

Riddick looked down on her in confusion and let her go. Zoe spun around so she could look him in the eyes, but they were covered by goggles. It was a little unsettling, but she hid it well.

"My father would rather see me dead, than know that he was too late and my honor had been lost to the likes of you."

He couldn't help it. He just had to laugh at her display. She was actually very cute when she was indignant.

"Why are you laughing at me?"

"Because you keep acting like I'm going to throw you on that bed and rape you. I already promised that I wouldn't hurt you and that I would let you go free once I was sure your father wouldn't catch me and hand me over to the mercs to sell. So just calm down and relax. Think of this as a rustic vacation."

She shrank into the bed as he left. She could faintly remember hearing his words and felt foolish. She had just assumed, and she thought she was better than that.

Zoe couldn't remember hearing the door seal this time, and she had steadily been growing hungrier since she had been taken hostage. Deciding to try her luck, she tried the door, and it opened. She ventured out of to the rest of the ship in search of food.

Riddick had heard a faint growl come from her stomach while he was in the room, not her room, but the only room on the ship, so he thought it might be best if he made something to eat for the both of them so maybe she wouldn't be quite so afraid of him. And now, as he was sitting down to some grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, chips, and sodas, he could hear her stomach growling as she was coming down the corridor.

"I was beginning to think that you weren't going to make your way out here before it got cold. Hope you like ham and cheese."

"You made lunch for the both of us?" barely above a whisper.

"It took a while, but I figured out how to make for two instead of one real fast."

"I didn't mean that you were stupid. Just after the way I acted, I didn't think you would go to too much trouble over me."

"It wasn't any trouble. Please eat before they get cold and gross?"

Zoe sat across form him where the other plate was set.

"Thank you."  
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The rest of the day they spent in silence after she was told that they would be sharing the room, but she would be allowed her own space. She unpacked the clothes she had bought and through numbness, brought with her, and he spent his time charting star jumps and trying to find a suitable planet or space station he could leave the princess at so she could contact her father, and he could get away. But the only good ones were either too close to the Zealion System and he wouldn't be able to get far enough away fast enough, or they were too far away for them to get to her soon enough before someone else might try to ransom her off for a hefty price.

But the ones in range were no good either. They were all rough places and she was sure to get picked off as soon as she was alone there. He would have to stay there with her for protection until her rescue got there. That was suicidal. If he were going to leave her there, he might as well take her back himself and turn himself in. That was not an option either.

Riddick began to hope that maybe if he traveled around long enough, a good place would present itself, and then he could go his own way again.

But little did he know that would be his eventual discovery.

**A/N: Sorry for this chapter being so short. Later chapters should be longer, I hope.**


	3. Getting to Know You

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the movies, books, or anything that could have come from any other show, movie, or book that I put in here and didn't realize. I do however own Zoe, her family, and Riddick's past that no one else thought about, so ask before you use it. Enjoy.**

The next couple of days were long and slow. Neither one really talked to the other, in fact, they didn't really see one another. Zoe stayed confined in the bedroom, trying to make it feel more like home to her since she believed she'd be here for some time, except when Riddick called her out for a meal.

Both had confirmed to the other that she wasn't a prisoner here and she had free reign of the ship. But, she always said that she just didn't want to get in the way.

Riddick allowed things to happen this way until the third day, when after lunch, he wouldn't let her go back to the room.

"Riddick, let go of me please?"

"I'm tired of you constantly hiding away in that room. You've changed the order of that room more times than I care to count, and it somehow ended up where it began. Today, I'm taking you on a tour of the ship."

"You don't have to do that Riddick. You probably have other things that need to be done, and I don't wa…"

Riddick stopped her with a kiss. Nothing passionate, just something to catch her off guard, but it still left her a little light headed afterwards.

"I don't want you to say that again. You aren't in the way. And you should realize that I always get what I want, so it's useless to argue with me. Come on."

Riddick took her over the entire ship. Granted, it was small and outdated, but it was new to her, and she felt like she could be freer here on this small ship with her "capture" than she ever had anywhere else but in the shrine for her mother.

She saw the cockpit in full detail, the small gym, just big enough for one person at a time, two if one watched, the practice ring, where Riddick trained himself, and what would become her favorite room…

A multi-phasic shield guarded observatory, equipped with holo-imageres. It was the entire right-wing of the ship. With a half dome shaped top made of plexy glass, you could see all of the stars and systems as the ship past them.

"This is the only observatory equipped with holo-imageres."

"Why would you need that?"

"That way, if I'm stuck on the ship for too long, I can pick a planet from the database, and instantly I'm looking at their stars. Then I don't feel quite so alone, or small."

Zoe was quiet for so long, Riddick actually found it alarming. She hadn't stopped asking questions since he started the tour. They weren't anything of any real importance, but it was almost never silent during the tour.

"Do you like it?"

When she didn't answer, he looked down at her and found that she was in such deep thought that she hadn't realized that she was crying.

Riddick stepped in front of her and gently wiped away her silent tears.

At the feel of his fingers on her skin she came back to the here and now. She wiped away the tears more fiercely and moved back to the main part of the ship without another word.

Riddick wasn't sure if he should follow her, but he wanted to know what that was all about, and he didn't think that she should be alone right now. So he went with his gut and followed her back to the room.

He entered the room only a few seconds after Zoe, but she had already collapsed on the floor in tears.

Riddick knelt down next to her, grabbed her by the shoulders, and forced her to look at him. "What's wrong? Was it that bad? Don't tell me, nothing new, right?"

"No! It's nothing like that. It was just… I'm just… Oh! I can't explain it. I loved it, and the entire ship. I guess I wish I could stay here, with you. But that's an absurd thing to wish for."

"Well, you will be here for a while, so you at least get some part of that wish granted." Riddick was a little hurt to have to say it, but at least Zoe wasn't so sad.  
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That night's dinner was a bit more talkative on both ends.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"Yes."

…

"Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes," she shot him a look of warning that he understood completely.

"I only ask because you are barely eating and you're barely speaking in response. One word answers are usually something I give, not get."

"I'm not that hungry and I really don't feel like talking."

"I was hoping you would tell me something about you. It seems a shame that we sleep together, and I really don't know anything about you except your name and that you are the Princess of Zealion."

"One of them."

"What?"

"I'm only one of them. I'm the youngest in fact. I have three older brothers and two older sisters."

"Oh, and here I thought you were the spoiled daughter of a rich and powerful King."

"No! I'm the over-protected daughter, my sisters were the spoiled ones. They wanted to be, so they were, I merely wanted to be free and loved. But, that was unheard of to my father, so I was guarded and he even attempted to keep me a secret until I came of age to be married off. Then I was flaunted and over indulged." Zoe went for sounding a bit on the sarcastic side, to sounding like she was completely disgusted with her life and family.

"So, your sisters ask for the world and get it, but you ask for freedom and love, and you get shunned. Your father really has his priorities fucked up. what about your mother? I'm sure she treated you with some kind of respect."

Riddick was desperately trying to find some reason now to send her back to her family and people. From what he was hearing, she sounded better off with him. He had seriously begun to reconsider sending her back when she started on about her family.

"My mother loves me and has always been the only one I could really open up to." Riddick visibly relaxed and released the breath he had been holding in. "However, she died giving birth to me, and I am the only one who can communicate with her among my siblings. I am the one closest to her in everyway, so I am the only one granted the ability to see and talk to her."

It took Riddick a moment to take all of that in. So she could talk to the dead, or maybe just her mother. He'd witnessed far stranger things during his travels.

"I'm tired of talking about me. Let's talk about you."

"I get the feeling that you are trying to hide something from me, but I'll let it go for now. What do you want to know?" he knew he was going to regret it, but he allowed for her questions, since she had answered his.

"Everything."

"Please pick a sub-topic? Everything will take a while, and I do want to sleep again before I die."

"Fine. It's only fair, your family."

"My mother and father both loved eachother very much and they lad a whole brood. I had two older brothers and four older sisters, and like you, I'm last born, but my mother didn't die giving birth. Her, along with the rest of my family died in a battle when I was five. Some fuckers had invaded my planet and my mom hide me away so I wouldn't get hurt, but the leader of that group of fuckers ended up finding me before they left. They took me off the planet and thought they had killed me, but…"

He stopped dead, lost in his thoughts. Zoe knew that look, so she didn't try to pull him out of it. She didn't want to force something that didn't want to come. The mind tends to wipe clean when pushed too hard, or forced to relive something that's too painful too fast, and he looked to be working through something.

He finally came crashing back to reality when she, ever so lightly, accidentally touched his hand.

"Oh! Uh! Where was I?" Riddick said a little confused.

"Don't worry about it. We'll leave the rest for another night. I'm tired anyways."

**A/N: This is so dedicated to my best friend. She enjoys more talking then action, so this is for her, Only-Eyes-For-Riddick. even though I think that is so the wrong name for her.**


	4. A Deeper Understanding

**A/N: I hope everyone likes the new chapter. I am trying to update as fast as possible, but I'm still going slower than I would like to be, so please bare with me. Enjoy.**

That night, for no other reason than that was what he wanted to do, he held Zoe close to his body as they slept.

Zoe woke the next morning in her usual position, on her stomach, but had a massive arm holding her down, a nose in her hair, and her shirt was halfway up her back. She felt safe, protected, and especially comfortable, and there was no way she was getting up unless she was forced up.

As the minutes ticked by, she began to feel a rough finger tracing a design on her back. Zoe decided to allow the contact because it felt wonderful to have his skin, however small the amount, touching her's, until she recognized the design he was tracing and realized where he was doing it at.

Zoe made to get up as fast as her body would allow at that time in the morning after being so comfortable, but Riddick held her down with just a little more pressure from his arm, and didn't even disturb the drawing. "Riddick, please let me up?"

"Why? I'm rather intrigued by the **designs** on your back."

"Because, I don't allow anyone to see those. Now let me up." She tried with everything she was to get up again, but still he wouldn't even allow her to budge. In fact, he moved so he was on top of her and he could hold her shirt with one hand and better trace with the other.

He left the intricate design of wing tips about the middle of her back to the design on her lower back.

"What's this symbol down here?" he asked in a sarcastically mocking tone as he began to trace it as well.

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you. Now get the fuck off of me!"

"Try me."

"Argh! … It's an old Furian symbol. A language long forgotten my the people, only studied by the royals…"

"So why do you have it on your lower back? You may be royal, but you're not Furian. It's considered a disgrace for anyone not of a Furian royal family to have that tattooed on their bodies."

"It's not a tattoo Riddick!"

He grabbed her by the shoulder and forcefully flipped her over while underneath him so she was perfectly aligned with him. "Are you saying that I'm stupid? That I don't know what a tattoo looks like?"

"No! I know it looks like a tattoo, but it's not. It's a birthmark." Zoe looked him directly in his ungoggled eyes, and he could see that she wasn't lying.

"Well," he tried to search for something else to talk about, rather than what was on her back, but he just couldn't got it out of his head, "what about the other one?"

"It's a birthmark as well."

"Why would you have wing tips as a birthmark?"

"Because," she managed to sit up and get him to move behind her as she slowly lifted up her shirt, "they are full wings."

Riddick could see a pair of full wings with the most intricate details anyone could possibly imagine. They included every feather that would be visible, the area where the bones would have connected with her body, and he even thought he saw a scar on the right wing. They appeared to be real wings, just shrunk and plastered on her back. "Angel wings?" he asked, stunned as his fingers began to trace again.

This time her entire body shivered. Zoe went to pull her shirt back down, but Riddick slowed her down by allowing his fingers to slowly glide down the feathers and caused her back to arch and her to let out a soft moan of pleasure.

"How do you have Angel wings and an ancient Furian royal birthmark symbol for birthmarks on your back?"

"Because that's what my mother tried for with all of her children. My eldest brother, Aragorn, is the only other one of us who she came close with, but he wasn't born during the right time, so he wasn't granted the same gifts as myself. But he's the only one of my siblings that I feel close enough to, to even talk to about anything with. My other brother…"

"How many brothers do you have? And why didn't you mention them yesterday when we were talking about families?"

"I have three, two living, one died two years ago. Aragorn is the oldest of us all, Bartlemy is the middle son and fourth born, and Constantine was born before me, he's the one who dies. Aurora is the oldest girl, followed by May Lihn, the second and third born, and the ones father spoiled. Besides, we weren't talking about families, I just mentioned that I was the youngest of my sisters, that my father spoiled them, and I could tak to my mother even though she was dead. And while you told me more about your family then I did, I still don't know everything."

"Well, I guess I should have asked. Anyways," Riddick completely forgot what they had been discussing and stayed firmly on his new subject, "I told you all I can really remember about my family. I can't remember names, who was born in which order, or anything like that. I can't tell you what I don't know. However, I can tell you that my father taught us all how to fight and he loved my sisters just as much as my brothers and myself. My mother taught us everyday things like cooking, cleaning, and so forth. But everything else I learned on my own."

"Riddick, how did you know so much about the symbol and that royal family stuff?"

"Every Furian knows about that symbol."

"You're Furian?"

"Of course. It's common knowledge, especially after the attack on Helion Prime."

"You mean when the Necromongers were there?"

"Yes."

"You were the one who saved them?"

"Yes."

"You were the Furian Warrior who killed the Lord Marshal and assumed his position?"

"Yes."

"Then where's your armada?"

"After I gave them new guidelines to follow and set their new commanders on the correct path, I left. I just couldn't stay with the people who took everything away from me. Even being their leader wasn't enough to make up for all they had taken from me."

"Oh! Well I guess I owe you an enormous thank you. after they had finished off Helion System, they were sure to come to the Serna System, and Zealion would have been their first stop."

"I'll think of something and let you know later."

"Alright." She paused for a brief moment and an idea popped into her head. "Does that mean that you're Richard B. Riddick?"

"Yes."

"The same one they say is an escaped convict/murderer?"

"Ex, yes."

"Didn't you save a girl and holyman from some planet about eight years ago?"

"How did you hear about that?"

"It was all over the news after the wreckage was found on that planet, after a search party found the planet. They tracked down the holyman and forced an interview out of him, but the girl was never tracked down."

"That's because she had left to come find me. all that got her was slaved out by mercs and a jail sentence in Crematoria. After I got her out of there, the Lord Marshal killed her for trying to help me kill him."

Zoe made a half turn so she faced him a little and wrapped her arms around his waist as she buried her face in his chest. "I'm so sorry Riddick. Did you love her?"

Riddick wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on her forehead. "Yes. She was the first person to see me as anything more than a murderer. She brought back my humanity. But she was more like a younger sister, like she was one of my family."


	5. The Need to Protect What's Yours

**A/N: This is to all of my fans out there, thank you all for hanging in there with me, and thank you for all of the lovely reviews. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: If it has already been put in a book, movie, TV show, or anime, or anything else that I might have forgotten, then I don't own it.**

From three star systems and a galaxy away, Zoe's father gathered troops from his fleet and half of the armada the Crowned Prince of Xion laid at his disposal to retrieve his daughter. The Prince's only stipulation was that he be allowed to accompany him on his quest.

Zoe's father also put out a call for his boys. He knew that if all else failed, Zoe would come home to please her older brothers. He also knew that Bartlemy would go in after her if he had to and bring her back hog-tied in the name of her safety.

When they heard that their youngest sister was in trouble, they left their respective kingdoms to aid in her safe return. It took each a couple of days to answer their father's request, but they showed up non-the-less. By the time the Prince of Xion and half of his armada arrived, Riddick's ship's wrap signature had been identified along with a trajectory for them to follow.

With all of the ships and men assembled there was an entire armada all looking for her and ready to blow anything that stood in their way to pieces.

They set out four days after her capture and found a fresh wrap signature of Riddick's a week out. They hadn't found the ship until the night before, but only on long range scanners, and didn't come within firing range until the next morning during their discoveries.

A small shuttle set out from the rest of the armada early that morning off towards the target ship carrying only the King, his two sons, and the Prince of Xion. All were hoping to simply show up and take her off of the ship without incident, but Aragorn, Zoe's older brother, knew better. He knew how miserable she had always been, and he wasn't expecting a fast retrieval, let alone, a retrieval at all. But he wasn't expecting what he would find when he arrived on the ship.  
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Shortly after his confession of his feelings for Jack, Riddick fell back to sleep with Zoe wrapped in his arms and on his chest. Zoe felt him drift off and easily escaped his grasp, and made her way to the holobay and programmed in her favorite place.  
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Riddick woke some time later to empty arms. He didn't think, he only acted. He shot out of the bed and ran around the ship searching for any signs of struggle, any signs of her. when he found nothing, he panicked more.

'Where could she be? Is she hurt? Is she gone? How did she leave without my knowing? Was she taken? How did they get passed the alarms without tripping any, and get her away from me without waking me?'

About the third question in he past by the holobay, where she was sprawled out on the floor, for the fifth time. He finally realized, after his ranting, that the holobay was being used. He all but ran in there and found himself faced with jungle like he's never seen before.

Not that Riddick could actually see the different colors, just the hues of pink and purple, but there were all shades of green on the plants ranging from the deepest hunter green to the brightest emerald green. The grass was lush and soft, like air pillows for your feet. The shrubs and bushes were thick, and the vines from the trees made it hard to walk through unless you knew a path. And the trees were so high and full that they blocked out the sun, but didn't make the air cling to your very being.

He had to use his shivs to cut his own path, since he didn't get to come in where the path was.

As he hacked his way through the vines and branches he began to call out for Zoe, but to no avail. When he made it to a clearing in the dense jungle, he found her laying, unconscious on the ground at what looked like a Japanese shrine.

When he got her in his arms, Zoe began to stir.

"Zoe, where are we?" He still hadn't managed to erase the nervousness or confusion from either his face, eyes, or voice.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were asleep." She hadn't heard him, and she could barely register that he was even here.

"I woke up a few minutes ago and found you here. Where are we?"

"Zealion," she said dreamily.

"Why did you program your home world? I thought you didn't want to go back."

"I only programmed the jungle behind the palace where my mother's shrine is. I needed to talk to her," anticipating his next question, but not the one after.

"Why do you need a copy of her shrine to talk to her?"

"She has to have a holy place to be able to enter the living realm."

"So what did you need to talk to her about?" trying to sidestep the issue and take her word for it.

"You. My father. His plans for me."

He couldn't help but blush a little at the mention that she needed advise about him, but he was more interested in her last comment. "What are your father's plans for you?"

"What any king would have planned for his daughter. He plans to marry me off so he can gain more power until the day he dies, then that power will transfer to my husband."

"Why not your brothers?"

"Because they all have their own kingdoms to rule over."

Riddick gave her one of his 'what the hell are you talking about' confused looks as he said, "You're going to have to explain this a little further."

"All of my brothers and sisters are married off and reside on the planet their spouse originates. By some miracle to my father, he managed to betroth all of the older ones to only children. Therefore, since those children already stood to inherit their parent's kingdoms, my brothers went to live on their wives planets to rule, and my sisters did what they would have done whether or not their husbands stood to inherit their parent's kingdoms."

"OK. But what's the situation with you? Don't betrothals usually commence once the two are old enough to wed?"

"Yes, if you were betrothed from birth. But, since I was never betrothed to anyone, I didn't have to follow the same rituals as the rest of my siblings. My mother made my father promise not to betroth me to anyone since I would be the youngest.

"I was to be given my choice of suitors and allowed to pick. But, I've gone through all of my choices already, so my father has decided that he'll pick for me, and I get no say in the matter."

"Why is he all of a sudden so worried who'll you'll end up marrying?"

"Because my father heard of another only child Prince who stands to inherit lots of money, power, and land, so long as he marries. My father is power hungry and struck a deal with him over my twentieth birthday that would allow him to rule over both planets until he is no longer able to rule. After that, and I manage to produce an heir to the Prince's thrown, I will reside back on my home world and rule while he stays on his planet and raises our sons and I raise our daughters."

She began crying by the end of her explanation and Riddick claimed her even tighter in his arms than he had her before. "Please don't let him find me? Don't let him take me back."

Riddick looked down at this beautiful, pleading woman in his arms, he looked deeply into her eyes, and his mind was made up. he lowered his head and captured her lips in a toe curling, passionate kiss that completely quelled her sobs, and caused a soft moan to escape her lips. "You're not going anywhere you don't want to go ever again. As long as you want me too, I'll protect you from anyone who wants to hurt you." And with that one kiss, he went from informal kidnapper, to full time body guard and hopeful boyfriend.

A small smile graced her lips, "How does from now until forever sound?"

He couldn't answer, all he could do was kiss her in response.

Riddick would have carried her out of the holobay, but she insisted on walking out herself. When they made it to the main corridor, Zoe would have rather been anywhere but there.

Waiting for her and her newly proclaimed bodyguard was her oldest brother, Aragorn.

"Zoe! What are you doing holding his hand? Are you alright? Has he hurt you?"

"Aragorn, I can explain. He hasn't hurt me, in fact he's been a better gentleman than most of those suitors that father presented. I love him and I don't want to go back to father and his plans for me."

"You what!" both men exclaimed. Riddick with hope of truth and his own love showing through, and Aragorn with shock, confusion, and yet an understanding of his youngest sister that only he had, and had expected of her.

"Do you really?" Riddick's eyes never left her's, searching for the truth he hoped for.

"Yes. I've known since the first night when you made me dinner, even after the way I acted before. I just didn't think you would return the sentiment."

"I love you too. I think I felt it when you stood up to me on the first day when I came to the room. And, after getting to know you all of this time, I've confirmed that feeling time and time again. I love you, and I would do anything to keep you safe and happy."

"That's all well and good, but we're taking her back home now." Aragorn hated to do it, but he interrupted their profession of love.

"What do you mean by 'we're here' to take you home?" She gave him an almost evil glare.

"Dad, Bartlemy, and your Prince have come with me to get you. And while I wouldn't hesitate to leave you here with him, seeing as you love eachother, and he seems to be doing some good on your temper and wild temperament, they won't leave you here, no matter how happy you are. Now, let's go. If we leave now, and he let's you go, he won't be in any danger."

As he said this, he made his way down the corridor and got her away from Riddick without her noticing. But, when Aragorn mentioned that Riddick could be in danger, Zoe disappeared from her brother's side and ran back to Riddick.

"No! Riddick don't let them take me away! I don't wanna go." Zoe jumped back into his open arms and buried her face in the crook of his neck. Riddick just held her close, almost like he were protecting his mate.

Aragorn's face dropped, he went from hopeful to depressed in that instant. He knew that there was no way he would be able to pry her away from her newly sworn protector and keeper of her heart, without help.

He didn't want to, but he had too… He called for help from the other three.

Almost as fast as lightening, Bartlemy and her father were on the ship, standing on either side of Aragorn.

Riddick saw them and held her tighter. "If she doesn't wish to leave, then I won't let you take her. I love her and will protect her with the last breathe in my body if I must. Now leave her alone and get off of my ship!" He spoke in little more than a possessive animalistic growl by the end.

You would think that after hearing that, Zoe's father would be touched enough to leave the kids alone and let her have her own life, but he is a power hungry bastard. So, instead, he stepped forward to make his presence known.

"Either release my daughter to my custody and live another day, or I will retrieve her by force and then blow you and your ship out of existence. You have ten seconds to comply." He had a matter of fact, lordly arrogance to his voice and a flat, bored tone at the base. Zoe knew he meant business.

Riddick could smell Zoe's fear begin to bubble up. He tilted her head back and looked deeply into her eyes. "I'll follow your lead, no matter what you decide."

Zoe wanted to stay where she was, in Riddick's arms and on his ship, but she had to protect him. It was something her mother had told her.  
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"You already know that you were meant for the Furian Prince, but this Riddick you've been telling me about seems like he could be a close second. If you don't manage to find one of the Furian Royal House, then I would sanction your marriage to him. But, only if he truly loves you," her mother, Avalon, said to her daughter.

"I don't know how he feels about me, but I think I'm falling for him."

"Just realize that once you've openly professed your love for him, you can never take it back, and you will be bound to protect his life as if he were the Prince you seek, even if he never returns your love."

"I understand."  
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She backed out of Riddick's arms and ran to her brother Aragorn, passed her father and other brother.

"Wise of you to let her go, convict," he stated completely oblivious to what had really happened, or his daughter's feelings for this man.

With that, they were gone, and Riddick was alone, again.

**A/N: I know this bit of Riddick was extremely sappy, but when I wrote this chapter, it sounded like it would be really good for the chapter. I apologize to all of you who hate the way I made Riddick in this chapter, but I never really could write a badass Riddick for very long, or very well. I'll understand if you quit reading the story from now on, but I would hope that you would give me a chance to redeem myself in your eyes. Thank you for sticking with me, and please be patient with my Riddick for this stroy. I hope I can get him back to the bad boy version before the story is over with.**


	6. Anger, to Put it Mildly

**Disclaimer: I still don't own anything in this story that anyone else has either seen, heard, or read before. There, now the lawyers can get off my back for this chapter.**

**A/N: Sorry it's been so long since the last time I updated, but there have been some things that have gotten in the way, and I just haven't had the flow for my stories like I normally would. But hopefully it had come back to me long enough to get them finished. Enjoy, and do feel free to review as you see fit. Until the next chapter.**

To say that Zoe was angry was a most grievous understatement. To say that she was pissed to the point of insanity was a rather large understatement. To say she was livid to the point of murder would be a better analogy, but even that wasn't exactly it.

Zoe's inner animal stayed so close to the surface that anyone who ventured too close to her could feel it reaching out, wanting to attack any and everything within range. Even her favorite brother, Aragorn, was a little frightened of her beast. He had had a first hand glimpse of her temper when one of the family would piss her off; always taunting her because mother had died giving birth to a child that was only related to them because she came from the same parents, even though she shared none of their blood. Aragorn had been the closest, and even he wasn't a match for her.

Aragorn escorted her to her room and just as he was about to say something to attempt to comfort her, she decked him and barricaded herself in her room. She refused to talk to anyone, to allow anyone to talk to her, or to see anyone for days.

Finally, Aragorn managed to coax her out of the room and join the family for a meal. Zoe nearly bolted back to her quarters when she saw that her Prince would be attending the meal as well, but Aragorn caught her and made her stay. She'd have fought back, but she was getting tired of having to avoid everyone when they suddenly wanted her to be the center of attention. And she was beginning to want to find out more about this Prince of Xion all of the maids were talking about. He was beginning to sound more and more interesting with every conversation she happened upon.

Instead of making her sit next to the Prince, much as her father would have wanted, Zoe sat between her brothers and across from the Prince.

Conversations started on and off again between different people, but Zoe remained silent whether or not they addressed her. she tuned everyone out and constantly sent the Prince an evil glare as he studied her every feature.

When her father struck up the topic of the upcoming wedding, Zoe interrupted him in mid sentence just to avoid the subject as long as possible. She hoped to be able to offend the Prince enough so he would call off the engagement.

"So, Prince…"

"Jaden," he interjected.

"Jaden. Where do you hail from?"

"Xion. I believe you would like it there. There are plenty of jungles for you to explore and loose yourself in."

"What makes you think that I would like jungles?"

"Your father told me that you spend hours in the jungle behind your castle. We could even have your mother's shrine moved, or duplicated, and placed there for you." He hadn't thought, he merely spoke, and now he would pay for his remark.

It may have been meant as something nice, a gesture of easy transition for her, but she allowed absolutely no one to talk about her mother around her.

Zoe reached across the table and backhanded Jaden for his remark about her mother. "Don't ever talk about my mother!"

Suddenly, years of torment from her siblings came rushing to her memory, and never being allowed to do anything about it, she released all of her anger and frustration out of Jaden because he had simply mentioned her mother. She grabbed him around the neck and began to squeeze as hard as she could, trying to wring every last breathe out of his body.

Everyone had to pull her away from Jaden, even her father.

"Get the fuck off of me! Let me go!" She shoved everyone away from her and stalked back to her room. Anger, frustration, and seething rage rolled off of her in waves with every footfall.

"I'll go talk to her," Aragorn offered knowing that she wouldn't even be able to hear him right now with her in such a rage.

"No, I'll go. I never should have brought up her mother and I knew that. I should go and apologize to her for my mistake. Who knows… maybe I'll catch her off guard and her manners will return long enough for her to apologize for hitting me."

"Or she'll kill you for coming near her before you have a chance to apologize," Bartlemy chided.

Jaden cautiously ventured back to Zoe's room, hoping to get his peace said before she could clobber him again.

Zoe heard light footfalls coming in her direction and assumed it would be Aragorn coming to scold her for her behavior at dinner. She went right in front of the door so she could catch him off guard as he came in.

The footfalls stopped directly outside her door and there was a brief pause before he even attempted to open the door. Zoe didn't understand. Aragorn had never really been afraid of her, he had always just fained fear to make her feel better when the other children would torment her for no other reason than they knew how to hit her buttons. He knew she would never really fight him. So why the pause?

The door swooshed open and both acted before either registered what was going on. Zoe jumped into Jaden's open arms as he started with, "Zoe, I'm sor… Ah!" Jaden managed to catch her and not fall to the ground himself from the sudden girl in his arms.

Instead of him getting hit before he could apologize to her, he had a rather embarrassed Zoe in his arms with her legs wrapped around his waist. He didn't mean to, but how else would you expect a fully functioning male with a ravishing beauty in his arms to react? He had an erection, and he was going to make sure she felt it. he very slowly, so as not to alert her to the movement, walked the two of them further into the room, ever closer to the bed.

"So I take it you accept my apology. Can't say I was expecting such a fast acceptance. I thought I'd have to fight you tooth and nail to get you to this point."

Jaden had them halfway into the room by this point, praying the entire time that he could make it to the bed before she snapped out of this trance like state. He made a mental note to get her into more embarrassing situations like this if it meant that he could be this close to her.

"I thought you were Aragorn coming in here to nag at me for the way I acted in the dinning room. Anytime I catch him off guard like this he instantly forgets whatever he was going to say for about a day, but then I get an earful and a half for making him delay his lecture. I'll just…" She just hit the bed and couldn't figure out how he got her all the way over here without her noticing it.

Suddenly she could feel his erection pressed hard against her core, the pressure of his body laying on top of her, and his lips crushing onto her own. It felt incredible, wrong, and yet like she was supposed to allow this to happen.

And then, just as fast as the kiss had begun, it was over and she was sitting upright on her bed watching as Jaden paced the floor in front of her, obviously in some kind of a dilemma.

"What was that all about?" Zoe asked, shocked that she hadn't tried to push him away.

"My sudden inability to control my animal urges. I apologize for everything; for the remark about your mother's shrine, even though I didn't mean it in a bad manner, and for the kiss," he added as an after thought. "I only meant what I said about your mother as a way to make the transition easier on you. But I never should have kissed you like that. I'm sorry."

"I'll accept your apology about my mother. I never should have flown off the handle like that and hit you, so I'm sorry as well. However, I don't believe you are sorry about the kiss, so I don't accept that apology. You planned that from the moment you made it into my quarters. Am I wrong?"

"I would guess not." An impish smile graced his features, and the tones between the two lightened.

They talked about almost everything. She told him all about Riddick, after making him swear not to send any mercs after him, about her childhood, painting a completely different picture than her father had, and all about her hopes and dreams for her life, after he prodded them out of her. He told her about Xion, his hopes for the marriage, and that he hoped that they could spare sometime as recreation instead of as a fighting session.

"While that sounds like a great idea to me, you'll have to get one of my brothers to fight with you. I'm not allowed to since the last person to meet me in the ring ended up in a coma for three months, and I wasn't even betrothed to him."

"Duly noted."

Both sat in a heavy silence. Neither one really wanted to be the first to mention that it was getting late and he shouldn't be in her room. They both figured that once Jaden left the room, they'd catch her brothers hanging out nearby waiting for her to emerge to throw out a large bag, big enough to have a folded up body in it.

Jaden decided to be the sensible one when he noticed a drowsiness come over Zoe's face. "I should let you get some sleep. You've had an eventful day with all of your emotional swings."

"If you start that shit, there just might be another one before you leave, and I doubt you'll enjoy it."

"Sorry. I just thought I'd won enough ground to be able to joke with you. I'll take my leave. Goodnight Zoe."

Both stood and walked over to the door. "Feel free to come by anytime you need to talk. You aren't half bad when we're alone."

"I know what you mean, and I may just take you up on that offer."

"Goodnight."

As they reached the opening door, he turned on his heel, effectively catching her off guard, and caught her lips in another kiss; this one more passionate than the last.

He released her and left the room as fast as possible so he wouldn't be tempted to try and stay.

Bartlemy had been the one to pass by as the door opened and Jaden caught his sister by surprise for another kiss. Both brothers had been taking turns watching the room from the time he made it in there, wanting to catch her before she did something that they couldn't reverse.

When the door closed again, Bartlemy put his arm around Jaden's shoulders and said, "Congratulations! You are the first of her suitors to make in and out of her room with a kiss instead of ripped off balls. You may just have a chance with her, if you don't fuck it up."

'Believe me, that's the last thing I plan on doing with her.'


	7. Discovery, Depression, Decision

**A/N: Told you all that I was finally back in my writing groove. Hopefully more chapters will come out of my brain and I can finish with both of my stories. Enjoy.**

Both had gone to bed alone, but in the deepest part of the night, only a few hours before they were due to enter the Serna System, and approximately twelve hours before they would land on Zealion, the capitol planet of the system, Zoe rolled over in her bed to find a rather hard body laying next to her.

"Who's there?" She was trying to remain calm and not explode at whoever was there without knowing who it was, and secretly hoping that it was Riddick coming to take her away.

"I know I shouldn't be here, but I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd take you up on the offer and have another chat."

"Jaden, I will kill you where you lay if you do not vacate my bed immediately! I'm tired, cranky, and becoming increasingly bitchier by the second."

He knew he had been tempting the fates when he ventured back into her room that night and crawled into her bed to lay next to her. He even knew he was tempting the gods by staying there and ever so gently placing his hand on her cheek. "I have something that I need to tell you before we land." Jaden played with his life even more when he pulled her closer to him and placed her on his chest.

Again, that feeling like everything that was happening between them was so wrong, and yet so right came back. She knew that she should fight him every step of the way, that she should at the very least resist as he touched her face and pulled her closer, but she continued to allow him to do these things because deeper in her heart, it felt like it was supposed to be happening.

"Why do I keep giving in to you when we're alone? I mean, I haven't felt any urges to kick your ass for invading my personal space, and I just allowed you to pull me here on your chest. I can't figure out why."

"Because my inner beast calms yours."

'Inner beast? That's a Furian term.'

"Did you say…"

"Yes, my inner beast. My driving force. My Furian blood."

"You're Furian!"

"Well, only half, but still of the Furian Royal House."

"You're a Furian Prince? But how?"

"My mother was the Queen of Furya. She was found half alive on the planet mumbling something about someone named Dick. The transport brought her to Xion and the doctors there fixed her up and informed my father of her presence, once she was found out to be royalty. She was granted Sanctuary at the palace, and they fell in love. The rest gets you to me."

"Why were you never put on the suitor lists?"

"Because I had been betrothed, but she broke our vows before we went through with the ceremony, and I just now decided to try to find someone new. The rest leads me to your bed."

The thoughts of what her mother had always told her came flooding back.

* * *

"When you find your Furian Prince, you will be calmer around him than you ever have been in you life, and you will fall in love with him immediately."

* * *

She had found her Prince and yet her mother was wrong. She may have calmed around him, but only after spending time with him alone and she had no romantic feelings for him at all, she merely didn't feel the need to kill him. Maybe it was only because he was half Furian, maybe that was why everything was taking so long to happen between them. She would have to talk to her mother once she got back to the planet and could get to the shrine.

Suddenly, while laying on his chest, a severe depression enveloped her. Zoe began to sob uncontrollably and inconsolably.

"Zoe, what's wrong? Did I say something?"

"I …don't …know. I …don't …know …why …I'm …crying …all …of …a …sudden!" She could barely breath through the tears enough to speak, and she went into an even deeper body wracking round of sobs.

Aragorn heard her from his room down the corridor as she began to cry, but was the only other one to hear her, and jumped out of his bed so he could run to Zoe's room when she wailed the last word.

"What the fuck did you do to her to make her start crying!" Aragorn all but yelled at him, completely ignoring that Jaden was in his sister's bed.

"I don't know. She just started crying all of a sudden. Help me man!"

Aragorn motioned for him to leave the them alone so he could do what he had to do. Jaden gladly left the room. Aragorn used a pressure point on the small of her back to put her to sleep and held her a while as she began to drift back into a dreamless sleep.

When he was sure that she was asleep, he left the room on a mission of mercy.

* * *

The ship was eerily calm, quiet, and empty. She had been gone for almost a month, but he could still see her all over the ship, could still smell her throughout their room, and hear her laughter echoing throughout the corridors. He was lost without her, lost in every way.

Riddick knew where they were taking her, but didn't know if he should follow after her. sure she may have professed her love for him, but did it mean anything if she was being forced into a marriage with someone else?

Would going to the planet and kidnapping her do any good? Sure, they would be happy, until her father or her other brother found her missing and they hunted him down again to get her back.

No, the only way he could be with her would be to get the king to agree to let him marry Zoe. But the king being a power hungry man would expect his youngest daughter to follow suit and marry a man who stood to inherit a powerful kingdom, and all of the power that comes with that, so she would be able to add to the list of powerful allies he had from his other children.

It wasn't that he was going to keep it from her forever, just until after he was sure that she would be able to love him for who he was, not the title he carried. He had to know that she would love him as a man, and not care that she wasn't getting her Prince.

Riddick paced the corridors of his ship, unable to keep still long enough to do anything, let alone get any sleep. As he passed by the com system for like the fiftieth time in the last ten minutes, he noticed a light blinking, signaling a message on a secure channel.

'Probably just another job.'

Riddick tried to ignore the light, but the little nagging voice at the back of his mind wouldn't shut up and leave him to his wallowing, so he checked the message.

Aragorn's voice sounded over the speaker:

"Riddick, this is Zoe's brother, Aragorn. Something's happened to Zoe and a terrible depression has fallen over her. I had to subdue her to control her crying, but I fear there maybe something seriously wrong with her. She needs you now! We'll be landing on Zealion in just under twelve hours, and the wedding will commence in one months time after that, whether or not she is any better. You have to get here before then, or I'm afraid for Zoe's safety. Hurry!"

Riddick wasted no time. The moment he heard that something was wrong with Zoe, he started up the engines, not needing to ear he rest of the message.

Luckily, he had the ship drifting in that direction the entire time, just hoping for a sign to tell him whether or not to put the engines in overdrive.

If this wasn't a sign, he didn't know what would be.


	8. Meet the Parents

**A/N: I am so sorry for the wait on this chapter. I lost all ability to write for either of my stories for so long, and am just now getting back into the swing of things. I hope that I'll soon be able to get both finished and that way I'll be able to work on the next project I have in mind. Another Harry Potter story, and a revision on the first story I ever wrote. Well, enjoy.**

Even pushing the engines at full capacity the entire journey to the planet, Riddick didn't make it to Serna System for two weeks, but he managed to make it to Zealion in a mere nine hours.

But, that part really should have come later in the chapter, so I'll backtrack so everyone can catch up.

* * *

After landing on Zealion, Zoë bolted out of the ship, straight for her mother's shrine in the jungle. She wasn't going to wait around for welcoming ceremonies, banquets, and grand announcements, not when she hated those things, and she had to talk to her mother now to get everything straightened out.

No one bothered to look for her. The only two who would have known where she would go, left her alone, and everyone else tended to look past her, even when she was right in front of them.

Zoë's talk with her mother went longer than most of her previous ones, causing Aragorn, and in turn, Jaden to worry. Aragorn knew of the complications and dangers of Zoë remaining in the shrine for extended periods of time.

* * *

Usually, Avalon would come to the realm of the living to talk to Zoë. Granted, they were usually short talks to keep her from going crazy thinking that no one in the entire universe could possibly understand her, that one day very soon her destiny would reveal itself, or that soon she wouldn't have to deal with her father's blind-sidedness or her sibling's taunting. But there were a few times where Avalon came to this realm for an extended period of time, but usually only for especially trying subject that Zoë would bring up or a very special occasion. There was only one time when she had disappeared from the castle for more than a couple of hours, the only time Zoë had ever broken the rules and went to the Realm of the Dead.

It had been a week before his own wedding and he and Zoë were fighting constantly because, as she saw it, he was going to abandon her to have to deal with all of the siblings and father while he was off starting a new family and ruling a completely new planet. After a particularly hateful session of the same argument they had been having since his engagement had been announced, she ran off to be near her mother, the only one who had ever truly loved her. When Avalon told Zoë that she was overreacting and to get over it, she followed her mother into the realm.

Needless to say, Avalon was pissed that Zoë would endanger her own life like that just to get away from her own brother, who she was mad at for being about to leave her. She had tried to send her back as soon as she found her in the realm of the dead, but by the time everything was said and done, Aragorn had already shang-highed her back to the castle, which made the entire process more than a little difficult.

While the doctors in the castle did everything they thought could possibly help, nothing worked to brig her back. For three days Aragorn wouldn't leave her side while the doctors tried one thing after another and then retried it all over again hoping a second dose would help, but noting happened. After the second round of "cures" she suddenly started to come too. No one knew what it was that woke her up, they were just happy not to have lost the Princess. Aragorn swore he wouldn't allow anything like that to happen to her again.

* * *

It had been six hours since they had landed, and neither Aragorn nor Jaden had seen her. After the welcoming ceremony, the feast for the guest of honor, and the grand announcement of the last great wedding for this generation of the royal family, both men went in search of her.

Once every room in the castle had been checked out twice by both, and the entire castle grounds had been searched with a fine toothed comb, and still no sign of her could be found, they headed for the shrine.

Even from a distance they could clearly see her laying unconscious on the shrine floor, but as they approached, their paths were being inhibited. A massive barrier had been erected around the shrine not only preventing anyone from entering and taking her away before she was ready to leave, but also repelling all others from the area around the shrine for extra protection.

* * *

Zoë didn't want a repeat of what had happened the last time she came to her mother's realm for an extensive chat, so she had elected to erect the most powerful barrier she could, without draining her so much that she would get stuck in the Realm of the Dead, for the sole purpose of privacy and solitude.

Her plan was to confront her mother on everything that had been happening and finally get some straight answers out of her. However, as she crossed the borderlines between the realms, her mother was nowhere to be found.

Instead, waiting there're for her was a woman just a few years younger than her mother. She wore her hair in high swept braids with tiny shivs adorning it. She had the most intense ice blue eyes, almost the color of Riddick's but minus his mercury depths. Her face was kind, but looked to have had to witness too many things at too young of an age, almost as if she might have lost what was most precious to her. She had a lithe frame, somewhere between athletic and naturally slender. As she approached Zoë, she carried herself like you would expect a Lady or a Queen to, just like Jaden had when they were on her father's ship together.

"Zoë, I presume," she said as she neared her. Her tone was gentle and loving, just like her mother's tone.

"Yes, but it seems you have me at a disadvantage. Who are you?"

"My name is Loranna, of Xion, formally of Furya. I believe you know my sons."

'_Sons? I know Jaden is from Xion, and he told me he was half Furian because of is mother, but who else does she claim?'_

"Riddick," she stated as if hearing her thoughts.

"You're Riddick's mother? That's impossible. She died in the attack on Furya when he was young. He lost his entire family in that attack."

"But I am his mother nonetheless. I made him run and hide as I began to feel that I was getting closer to my end, partly because I didn't want to scar with my death, but also to protect him from the Necros that were headed for us."

Zoë was stunned. _'I'm meeting both Jaden's and Riddick's mother. That makes the two of them brothers, and means that Jaden couldn't be Furian Royalty, or at least not of the Furian Royal House. Which would explain why I didn't really feel anything for him.'_

"Actually, that means that Richard is the last full blooded Furian Prince. Jaden is a member of the Furian Royal House, purely because I gave birth to him and am still a member myself. However, because he is only half Furian, he will never be allowed to inherit the throne. The people would never accept him as their king because he would be seen as weak, and he'd never be able to produce a Furian heir to the throne, even if he did have an angel born as his mate. Therefore…"

"Riddick is the one I'm meant to find! But why didn't mother, or even you, tell me the last time I was here, after I'd found him?"

"Because, after Richard and I were separated on Furya, I thought he had been killed. Almost no one survived the attack on the planet, and he was so young, that I didn't think he would have survived alone. And because of the way he's grown up, he's changed so much from my little warrior, to a killing machine. He even used to have my eyes, which would have been my way to recognize him after all those years of being separated, but he even changed those to the shinned ones he has now.

"Even after he defeated the Lord Marshal of the Necros, I still couldn't clearly see his Furian lineage. I could clearly see that he was full blooded Furian, but not that he was my son. And by the time I was able to find him again, I was so busy watching over Jaden and trying to guide him to you so our people might have a future of some sort."

"So why are you suddenly so sure Riddick is your son?" Zoë asked in a highly excited tone.

"After the last time you were here, when your mother warned you about confessing your feelings, and what you'd have to do no matter if he felt the same way, that's when everything changed. You went back and told Richard how you felt, and he told you as well, and from that, both of your bloods awoke to reveal who you really were. I was finally able to see my son, the way he should have looked before he changed all of those things for his own survival, and I could see that you were his 'guardian' angel."

"You mean to tell me that just because I told Riddick that I loved him…"

"And he reciprocated."

Zoë gave Loranna a rather impatient look for interrupting her in mid thought, "that you were suddenly able to see Riddick again?"

"Yes. But it's not like I couldn't see him before, I was just able to see that he was my son."

"Oh," the nervous realization that she had some of the facts skewed made Zoë a little more humble towards Loranna.

"I've known he was destined for an angel born all of his life. The symbol he was born with on his back is the ancient symbol for angel. It's the same one that resides on your back, but his is hidden from everyone, including himself. The only way to reveal it to him and everyone else is for the two of you to mate.

"I'm patiently waiting that day, because then the two of you will have claimed your rightful places as King and Queen of Furya, and the planet and its people will finally be able to heal."

"But now everyone in my family is expecting me to marry Jaden, and I don't get a say in who I want to be with. Besides, the wedding is in a little under a week, and I don't know where Riddick is to get a message to him to get him to come for me."

"Aragorn has already taken care of that little detail, Zoë. He should arrive at the castle within the hour. Just long enough for you to go back to your realm and wake up."

Avalon had been waiting in the shadows for Loranna to finish what she felt she had to tell Zoë herself. Now that Zoë was beginning to understand, she felt it would be a good idea for everyone to go there to help convince the boys, but that part was going to be only a backup plan if she got into trouble.

"Why didn't you tell me who he was when I was here last?"

"To tell you the truth, I had no idea. I knew he was Furian, but I didn't know he was royalty. Once you both woke each other's blood, Loranna came and told me everything she knew, and asked that she be allowed to talk to you first the next time you came here.

"But if you don't leave here soon, you'll not be able to get back and wake up before your Prince comes to steal you away. And, we're giving you the honor of introducing the two brothers.

"Now you better get going before its too late. I love you, as always, and I promise to be there for the wedding."

With a quick kiss for her mother and hug for her soon to be mother-in-law, Zoë ventured back to the Realm of the Living.

* * *

It took nine Spellcasters, six Barrier Breakers, and three hours to finally pull down the barrier Zoë had placed to keep everyone from interfering with her visit with her mother. Of course, she had already been back long before they broke through the barrier, but because of her extreme exhaustion due to unscheduled travel between the two realms, she remained unconscious.

The moment the barrier was down, Jaden pushed passed everyone to make sure Zoë was alright. He checked her from head to toe, praying that nothing was wrong. Once he confirmed that she was alive, but unconscious, he scooped her up into his arms and carried her off to his rooms in the castle. He'd keep her there for the night as her body readjusted from being in the Realm of the Dead and her powers grew back to normal, both for her comfort and his own reassurance.

She slept all the rest of that evening and well into the night. No one could either wake her, or really even tried. Both Aragorn and Jaden knew she was fine, just tired, and made sure she wasn't disturbed.

Around midnight, for no reason other than something was telling her that she should wake up; she woke up, turned over, and found a pair of angry, silver orbs boring into her from the depths of the darkness in the room.

"Riddick, I know it's you. Please don't be angry?"

His deep, sexy, animalistic, baritone voice, only more of a whisper, rumbled her body from head to toe. "Why should I be angry with you? I only received a com message from your brother saying that you needed me right away. But, either he was lying, or you got over it pretty fast."

"No, I still need you Riddick. I love you and I want to be with you."

He pushed himself off of the wall he had been leaning on with so much force; he dented the wall with his boot, and stopped a foot from her face, "Don't lie to me! You never loved me! I was just something to occupy your time with until you found your Prince!"

"You will not talk to Zoë like that convict," Jaden commanded from his position on the bed behind Zoë.

"Jaden, stay out of this!"

Riddick turned to leave the room, muttering under his breath, "It was a mistake to come here."

"Riddick, don't go!" Zoë made to get out of the bed to go after him, half crying because he wouldn't listen to her side of things, but Jaden restrained her with a possessive arm around her waist.

"Let go of me! Riddick!"

Riddick felt something his beast respond on autopilot; hearing her scream out his name like that, for him to come save her, just tinted with fear; he couldn't have stopped himself if he had wanted to. He spun on his hell, twisted Jaden's wrist to make him let Zoë go, grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his arms, before he even thought to let Jaden go.

"Keep your hands off what's mine."

"She doesn't belong to you, she was meant for me. Zoë is an angel born, and the future Queen of Furya. I am the last Prince of Furya, and therefore, she belongs with me."

"Jaden, I'm sorry, but you are wrong. Richard is," interjected Loranna.

"Mother!" both boys exclaimed simultaneously.

**A/N: I hope you all liked the latest installment of Angel's Majesty. For those of my loyal readers who are still keeping track of the story, I apologize for this latest delay. I hope you are still enjoying the story, and I hope for very few long delays from now on.**

**Until next update.**


	9. What Dreams May Come

**Disclaimer: Anything that might have come from the movies or any books I obviously didn't have anything to do with, but if you didn't already see it or read it, then it was all mine. Now that I've recovered all my bases, let's get back to the story.**

"What do you mean mother," asked a stunned Riddick to an unsuspecting Jaden?

"Precisely what I said, mother. She is the late Queen of Xion, Loranna." Jaden merely gave Riddick a look of pure distain and loathing for his arrogance and ignorance.

"Correction, oh young and naïve one, she is my mother. And I don't know where you're getting this 'late Queen of Xion' bullshit, because she happens to be my mother, the last Queen of Furya, at least until I take a wife." Riddick returned the glare from Jaden and gave Zoë a hopeful look.

"Boys! There will be absolutely no fighting between the two of you while I'm here. Is that understood?"

They bowed there heads as a sign of submission. Being their mother meant that if she gave an order, and they accepted either willingly, as both Riddick and Jaden had done with that simple bow of the head, or reluctantly, they were honor bound to carry out that order to it's completion.

"Now that you two won't be arguing anymore, this should go far more smoothly.

"You are both correct. I was the Queen of Furya and Richard was the last Prince to be born on Furya. I am, and always will be, Richard's mother. I am so sorry that you thought I had died. If I thought for a moment that I was going to survive that wound, I would have kept you close to me. Maybe if I had, you would have grown up with me for a little while longer, and then you wouldn't have had to live the life you've led.

"But, I am, and always will be Jaden's mother as well. After I was saved, I was taken to Xion and there I met and fell in love with his father. It may not have been the kind of love that I held for your father Richard, but it was love nonetheless.

"I married Jaden's father and had him about two years after the attack on Furya. Jaden is your younger, half brother."

"Which makes me the last Prince of Furya and destined to be with Zoë, the Angel Borne," chimed in Jaden in too knowing of a tone, that didn't suit him in the least.

"While it does make you a Furian Prince, you are unable to claim any inheritance or real rights since you are only half Furian."

"But you used to tell me how I'd one day rule…"

"Jaden, please calm down? Because Richard is alive, older, and full blooded Furian, he gains all of the inheritance of the Kingdom. The only way you could even give a servant in the castle an order is if Richard were to give you permission to do so.

"But, Zoë, you were meant to be the next Queen of Furya whether or not you had meant either one of my sons, even if you didn't have a drop of royal blood in your veins, simply because of your angel blood."

"Why?"

"Because," Riddick decided that now would be the time to break his silence and remind everyone else in the room that he was there, and that he knew at least the oldest legend in the Furian history, "while angels are made by the droves on a daily basis, there is only one born once in every generation.

"Those of the Furian Royal House who are lucky enough to be born in that generation, under the same moon as the angel born, whether right then or just a different year with the same moon over head, are gifted with and Angel Borne for a counterpart. A soul mate.

"I was the one in the family who was born under that moon, the same one you were born under three years later, the Furian Moon. All Angel Bornes are only born under this moon, since they are meant for Furians alone, and are therefore granted full Furian blood. Because we are soul mates, destined to find each other, we fell in love so fast and hard on my ship.

"I wanted to tell you all about myself, but I didn't want you to only want to be with me because I was the Prince you were looking for. I wanted to know that you wanted me for me, even with all of my faults. Please don't be angry with me for not telling you?"

"I could never be angry with you. But I wasn't even born on Furya, so how could I have been born under the Furian Moon and be destined for the Furian Crown?"

"Angel Bornes are never born on Furya. It's a sort of test for them to be born on another planet. The Prince or Princess destined for the angel must go in search of said angel and find them before they can be with them.

"Once the angel has been found, the royal must complete a task set by the parents, in your case your father, which proves their determination and loyalty to the Angel Borne," stated Loranna.

"What happens if you don't complete the task?"

"Don't worry about that. I'll do anything to make sure I get to be with you."

A grin spread across both their faces and a slight blush crept up over her face. But just as quickly as the blush started, she paled.

"But what if my father assigns you a task that you can't complete?" Zoë knew her father would never see Riddick for anything other than another convict, just another piece of garbage that shouldn't be associated with anything decent, so he would most likely assign Riddick a task that would be too complicated, or underhanded, for him to be able to complete.

"If your father manages to find something that I either can't or won't do to get you in my life forever, than I probably don't deserve you anyways. I'll do anything, kill, steal… anything. I want you in my life, no matter what it takes."

"Richard, there are limits to what you are allowed to do in order to get her. You can do nothing illegal, nothing that could harm anyone else, and you must conduct yourself in the most respectable manner possible while in her father's presence when he gives you the task, if he gives you one.

"Further more, you have to realize that the king does not have to give you a task, if he does not feel that you are worthy of his daughter. There have been many of our royalty that did not get their angel. You cannot force him to give you one, no matter how badly you want her. Do you understand me?"

Riddick very grudgingly acknowledged his mother as he pulled Zoë into his arms even more possessively than he had her before. He wasn't even going to entertain the idea that he could still end up losing Zoë even though he had it made to the planet before the wedding, and she was destined for him.

Riddick made to leave the room with Zoë in his arms bridal style when someone with a death wish attempted to pull him back towards the bed.

"And just where do you think you are going with the princess?" Jaden didn't care that Riddick could very easily snap him in two, and probably wouldn't even break a sweat doing so. This man was trying to make off with his bride to be, even though more than likely she would be given to his now older half brother because he was the one destined for her and not him. He couldn't allow anything to happen between them right now, especially if there was a slime chance that he could still end up with her.

"Until her father releases her from our engagement, she is still my fiancée, and I would appreciate it if you unhanded her."

"Fine, but if I can't be alone with her, than there ain't no fucking way I'm going to let you stay in here alone with her. She may be your fiancée, but that's all going to change once I complete whatever task her father sets and he releases her from this farce of an engagement.

"You can come with me. That way I know you aren't sneaking around in here, and you know that I'm staying away, for now. Anyways, I'm feeling the need to get to know my little brother. We have an entire lifetime of events to recap on." _And I'll need to know as much about my enemy as I can find out, otherwise I won't have the kind of ammunition that I'm going to need to get him to break their engagement should her father decide to not give me a chance to prove my worth._

So, for the rest of the night both of the boys spent it in Riddick's room on his ship, Jaden on the bed, Riddick on the rather large sofa across the room, neither one willing to be the first to start talking, and neither able to fall asleep. They sat there, watching each other, showing no signs of weakness to the other one.

Eventually, both boys passed out from sheer exhaustion, and the whole reverse psychology thing. You know what I mean, when you try with everything in your being to stay awake, and you end up passing out almost instantly. That's what happened to them.

Now, Riddick had the usual dream you read in this type of story. The one where everything is finally coming together in his life, and now that he finally has the love of his life in his life, underneath his body, and screaming out his name in pure passion, nothing in the world could possibly touch him. So, needless to say, he was getting himself plenty in his dream.

Jaden was the one who had the life changing dream.

**_He was walking, using the term loosely, through a dense, luscious green forest, maybe even a jungle. It was pitch black but for the clear night's stars and jade green crescent moon hanging overhead._**

_**He was walking along what appeared to be a heavily used trail, but had no idea where he was going. He continued to follow the path for a time, hoping that there was an ending coming up soon, when he heard strange noises coming from off in the distance in the direction he was heading.**_

_**As he neared the sounds he could make out what sounded like groans and aggressive moans; the sounds of battle.**_

_**Jaden made it to the last remaining obstacle of jungle and realized that he had his father's longsword at his side. He unsheathed it and hacked his way through the last remaining blockade.**_

_**He emerged from his jungle cave to find himself outside the shrine behind the castle. There, within the shrine, were the causes of the sounds.**_

**_A White Tiger was standing in the shrine fighting, using all techniques, hand to hand, swords, and magiks, against an Artic Wolf. And further back into the shrine there appeared to be a Snow Leopard talking and tending to a wound of a beautiful White Horse._**

_**As Jaden watched the scene unfold, the Tiger dealt a serious blow to the Wolf which knocked the Wolf out of the ring, eliminating the wolf from the fight. Without hesitation, the Tiger knelt down over the Wolf to heal the bruises that were beginning to form. Once that was taken care of, the Tiger helped the Wolf up off the ground and over next to the Horse.**_

_**The moment both the White Tiger and the Snow Leopard were rested enough from their previous fights and healing sessions, they entered the ring together. The air temperature dropped twenty degrees and picked up enough speed around them to make it appear that they were standing in the vortex of a tornado.**_

**_Jaden had been standing at the outskirts of the ring during all of this and had been caught up in the ever increasing whirlwinds. Because of this, he couldn't watch the entire fight between the Tiger and Leopard. He did however manage to catch glimpses of the fight._**

_**He was spun in every conceivable and inconceivable direction while the pair fought. He was up in the air for what felt like days to his flipping brain cells, but it was really only about a half hour. Have you ever wondered what an egg feels like when it's being scrambled? Try to imagine that, then multiply by twenty, and you're getting close.**_

_**At one point he saw the Tiger in a winning position and hoped that it would mean a quick end to all of his suffering, but then on his next rotation facing the direction of the fight, the Leopard would be in the commanding position. It traded off like that for the entirety of the fight, until Jaden suddenly felt the earth sneak up on his ass, with a rather hard thud. He looked up only to see the tall form the Leopard standing in front of him waiting for… something.**_

_**Jaden was terrified and confused. Rational thought was well beyond the realm of possibility, which would explain why he just began to ask the Snow Leopard questions as if it would understand or answer.**_

"_**What's going on? What happened to the White Tiger? What is this place and how do I leave?"**_

_**The Leopard didn't answer, of course, but it did nod it's head over in the direction of the group that was watching the entire scene. There, standing where the Horse had been, was his mother, looking as beautiful as the day she married his father, from what the wedding photos had depicted.**_

"**_Jaden," said Loranna as she ventured to the edge of the ring, but no further, "this is an ancient Furian ritual that you have just intruded upon. Richard and Zoë invoked it to see who would be the stronger in their marriage, and therefore better capable to rule Furya, once they've been joined._**

"_**By coming here, you've entered yourself in the running and must fight the current champion to be allowed to leave. The Snow Leopard will be your opponent, and should you win, you will achieve your dreams of attaining Zoë as your queen and the rule of Furya."**_

"_**But who am I fighting?" Jaden was overwhelmed, even more confused, and really just ready to wake up.**_

"**_The only way to find out is after the fight is won," stated the newly transformed Avalon. "It's just as likely that you're fighting Zoë as you are fighting Riddick. Because of the ritual, neither of them is able to transform back to their human forms until a victor has been named._**

"**_But, there is an upside to all of this. If you're fighting Zoë, than she has already won her right to be crowned Queen of Furya with Riddick as her king. If so, you're fighting, not only for Riddick's place at Zoë's side, but also her position as the raining ruler of Furya. However, if you win against Riddick you'll attain his crown as King of Furya and you'll have Zoë as your queen._**

"**_But if you lose, you forfeit your claim on Zoë in everyway. If it's Zoë you lose to, she has the right to make the two of you fight for a test strength so she can pick the stronger of you for a mate. If it's Riddick… Well, let's just hope it isn't Riddick."_**

"_**But how am I supposed to fight a Snow Leopard the size of a man, with all it's strength, and I'm assuming it has powers from what I saw it doing during the last couple of battles, when I am only human?"**_

"_**I'm sorry Jaden. You are at a great disadvantage since you neither inherited my powers nor an animal form from your father since he's not Furian, but you're not completely defenseless. You brought your father's longsword here with you, and you'll be allowed to use it when you want. Good luck."**_

"_**I don't need luck. I need a fucking miracle."**_

_**As Jaden turned to face his opponent, he caught the unmistakable glare of a cold, calculating, enraged, and enlightened animal. Hope welled deep within him that maybe he was fighting against Zoë. It was very possible that this would be the only way he'd ever get her to fight him without holding back like he had hoped for when they were on the ship together.**_

_**They started off with hand-to-paw combat, testing each other's strength. When they realized they were evenly matched, the swords were drawn.**_

**_The Leopard unsheathed Aries, the Furian Sword of Strength and Power, named after the old Earth Greek God of War. It was a beautifully crafted blade that looked as though it were crafted of frozen black and silver fire. The hilt was sterling silver and black onyx, entwined, with three stones embedded at the ends. In the top two ends lay a black diamond and blue sapphire, while a white sapphire was set in the bottom end of the sword._**

_**Jaden's sword, on the other hand, was like any other king's sword. The normal polished iron, double-edged blade, gold cord encircling a black iron hilt, and jewels of common variety for kings, emeralds, rubies, and overly polished turquoises pretending to be sapphires, adorning the hilt. On Xion it would have stood out as being the most magnificent sword on the planet, but it couldn't compare to the sword the Leopard carried.**_

**_The only one out of the three possible fighters who had any formal training with a sword was Jaden, but that wasn't to say that neither of the other two couldn't wield a sword if they wanted to, they just wouldn't be as skilled as Jaden would be. But the wielder of Aries would automatically be gifted with near perfection swordsmanship. Near perfection meant that Jaden had time to be able to deflect some blows, dodge others, and even send a few blows at the Leopard himself. Both were hit by the other's sword, but more hits were blocked than taken on both accounts._**

_**It began to appear that it would be a tie, that there would be two equal rulers, and that Zoë could possibly be shared in marriage to these two. But, from the depths of it's being, the Snow Leopard tapped into its true strength and landed the victorious blow to Jaden.**_

_**The moment Jaden hit the ground he knew it was all over. He felt his body give up completely and his mind go blank. He was numb, but sore all over.**_

**_He looked over at the White Tiger just in time to see the white fur transform into a white silk, strapless, form-fitting, full, flowing gown. Her hair was done in high swept curls, held up with angel wings and tiny shivs, with glitter and baby's breathe throughout her golden locks. And just laying on top of her head was a simple tiara with a single teardrop diamond hanging down to the middle of her forehead. Jaden could think of only one word to describe her, "Breath-taking."_**

_**Then he realized that he had just been fighting his older, half brother, a convicted murderer, for his chosen mate and title, and lost. The fear began to drip off of him in the form of sweat.**_

_**Riddick walked over to Jaden, reached down to pull him up, and helped him right himself.**_

_**Jaden attempted to put on a brave front in the face of his soon to be killer, but his terrified back was doing a damned good job of giving him away.**_

"_**I believe you have something to say," stated Riddick in his own little tone that could still any man's blood.**_

_**Jaden's mind went blank again for the briefest of moments, but long enough to make Riddick believe he was attempting to back out of his part of the agreement.**_

"_**You have fought in this most sacred and honored of Furian ceremonies, lost, and yet you still attempt to lay a claim on my mate!"**_

"_**No! My mind went completely blank after that last punch of yours. I hold true to the Furian customs, new and old, and under the rules of the fight, I release Zoë from her marital bonds."**_

**_A true smile spread over Riddick's features as Zoë ran into his open arms. He held her as close to his body as he could and buried his face in the crook of her neck to completely immerse himself in her scent._**

"_**Thank you, brother."**_

_**Jaden looked up from admiring Zoë to see Riddick standing over him again.**_

"_**What for?" He tried not to sound sore about everything, but that's not how it came out.**_

"_**For honoring your part and releasing her to me. You've made our Wedding Ceremony worth that much more."**_

"_**Wedding Ceremony? That's what this was?"**_

"_**Yes. This was the Ancient Royal Wedding Ceremony. It's only invoked one a generation, and only by those destined for an angel."**_

"_**Well, then I guess, you're welcome." With that, Jaden turned towards the jungle to leave, hoping that he could find his way out the way he had come. He had just lost the only woman he ever had the chance to fall in love with to a brother he had only just met.**_

**_As he made it back to the edge of the jungle, which he would have sworn was much closer when he first arrived, down floated Zoë, in all of her angel glory. If he had thought the sight of her in all white was breath-taking, he was blind in comparison. She still looked the same, but with her wings at full spread to bring her to a safe landing; it made her entire body glow instead of just her face._**

"_**Jaden, I need to tell you a few things before you leave. First, thank you from the bottom of my heart for releasing me from the marital bonds, even though I know you didn't want to. It will confuse my father when we tell him in the morning, but so long as you tell him that you aren't being threatened or anything like that, he should accept it as the truth and allow me to live the life I've chosen.**_

"_**Second, I am extending an invitation on behalf of Riddick and myself for you to come to Furya when we go, that way when we are crowned as King and Queen of Furya, you can be crowned Prince of Furya. This way you'll be part of the family in a formal way, and should anything happen to Riddick before we have a child, there will be a king in waiting. I know it's not quite what you were hoping for, but at least no one will be able to deny you your rights if the King himself bestow them on you before anything could happen, and you'll be able to be there to be apart of your own family, and maybe even help us rule for a time while everything gets settled.**_

"_**All of this Riddick and myself discussed before everything happened as far as battles went. I knew you'd be drug here in your dreams because you would be considered a contender for my heart, and this is also a way to help a young maiden chose between possible mates.**_

"_**But, because of the way you fought and how well you did in there, I'm gifting you with something even more special than what it is that I have already offered you."**_

_**She leaned in towards Jaden and gave him a kiss on the lips. It was nothing passionate, long, or drawn out, just a simple feather touch of her lips to his.**_

A/N: Hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. I know this chapter was incredibly long, but it was needed. I also wanted to warn everyone who is reading this story that I'm going to be working on my other story for a while, so expect a longer delay in updates for this story.


	10. Waking Up

**Disclaimer: For all of the aspiring lawyers out there, I don't own anything that you've already seen before, but if it seems new, then I came up with that all on my own.**

**And for all of those actual lawyers out there reading my stuff and being mesmerized by my little story here, maybe you could help me get this stuff copywritten so I could get some money off of my hard work.**

Jaden opened his eyes to find himself reaching out for more, but finding only the air on his brother's ship above him as a greeting.

'If that was truly a dream, than that was the most vivid dream I've ever had. I'm even sore everywhere he hit me, and I've got scars where his blade nicked me. I even still feel her lips on mine.'

He lay there for a long time just thinking about everything; the dream, what had happened, and what he had said.

**_"… I hold true to the Furian customs… I release her from her marital bonds…"_**

'But if it were just a dream, then what I said within it doesn't matter. And that means that I've not released her from the marital bonds and she still belongs to me.

'Although, more than likely, it wasn't a dream, in the traditional sense, and therefore they'll hold me to my declarations. I'll just have to play it by ear.'

With that Jaden drifted back off to sleep for the remaining hours of the night.

* * *

Once Jaden had been sent back out of the dream world, Loranna and Avalon left the newlyweds to themselves.

It may have been a legal ceremony for Furians, but since everything had taken place in a dream, for Zoë's people, her father in particular, they were still just a roaming convict and their princess, who was still meant for another person. Therefore a proper ceremony would have to be had for the people to witness.

But that didn't stop them from having a wedding night within their dream world. Even with the world around them constantly changing to their specifications, it wasn't the best first night for either of them.

Riddick, who had plenty of first nights with women before, was far too eager to take his time with the virgin princess in his bed. More mistakes were made within a two hour period than most young teenagers experience throughout an entire night's excursions. But at least they had plenty of time to make up for all of the fumbling they did during the rest of the night.

After the rhythm was finally established, foreplay was given a chance, and a few different angles were tried, the orgasms flowed out of their cores, multiple times.

* * *

So, when they woke the next morning, both had grins plastered to their faces.

Zoë not only knew that she was married to Riddick, but also that they would go to her father and he would formally request her hand in marriage after Jaden informed her father that he had released her from the marital bonds. And one day she would ascend the thrown of Furya as Riddick's Queen.

Riddick had every intention of doing everything else from here on out by the "book", even though they had skipped a couple of steps by marrying in the dream ceremony. What her father didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

They walked into the breakfast chamber that morning arm in arm, both in the best moods possible, only to find Jaden and Zoë's father in deep discussion about wedding plans.

"I think we should have a midnight ceremony under the moon. It's far more romantic that way, and it's how most Furians get married.

"I know how much it would mean to Zoë to have a traditional Furian ceremony, seeing as how she is so absorbed with that culture," was Jaden's reply just as Zoë and Riddick walked into the room.

"If you two are planning my wedding, shouldn't I be involved in the details?" When Jaden mentioned something about a Furian ceremony Zoë thought that he had already told her father what happened the night before and was taking it rather well; but that should have been her first clue.

"I'm glad you are finally getting in the spirit of things. I was hoping that you would eventually come to terms with the way things are going to be and that I wouldn't have to drag you down the aisle at your own wedding."

She had a smile on her face up until her father started talking, then everything became clear. Jaden had gone back on his vow to her and his brother and didn't say a word to her father like he was supposed to do.

"Jaden, can I talk to you for a minute?" It was a question plain and simple, but to everyone else in the room it sounded like something else. Riddick: an under tone of annoyed anger and frustration; Jaden: pure, unadulterated rage, something he had been on the receiving end of more times than he liked to remember from both her and his father; her father: the fearful concerns of a young bride to be.

"You didn't tell him?!"

"Tell him what? It's not like anything has changed between the time we all went to bed last night and when we all woke this morning. I had mentioned that I recently found out that I had a brother, that he was here at the castle, and that he just happened to have been the same man who abducted you before. He had some trouble digesting that over breakfast, but after we started talking about the wedding he calmed down."

"You were also supposed to tell him that you were releasing me so that I could formally marry Riddick. Or did you forget about what happened in the dream world last night?"

"What dream world?"

"The one were you and Riddick fought for my hand in marriage and you lost. And when you lost you released me to be with Riddick."

"So it wasn't just a dream? All of that really happened and I really did let you go?"

"Yes, and I would like to be able to marry my wife in the eyes of her people. So, you had better go hold up your end of the vow, or I'm not going to be held responsible for what I do to you; brother or not," Riddick cut in with.

"And here I was hoping that I had just had some horrible nightmare and that I was still going to get to marry you in a couple of days."

"I'm sorry Jaden, but everything did happen and Riddick and I are married, so we would really appreciate it if you would tell my father the wedding is off. Then, Riddick can ask my father what task he has to perform for him to be able to marry me.

"And after the task is completed and we are formally married in the eyes of the people, I can go to Furya and we can ascend the thrown as King and Queen of Furya." The smile was back and she was practically giddy with glee.

* * *

Telling her father that he had a brother who had also been the same man who had abducted her from her family had been easier than telling her father that the wedding was off and that his brother was going to formally ask for her hand in marriage. Now it was all up to Riddick to not fuck things up.

* * *

Riddick had never been so scared in his life. He had faced down real monsters and men who thought they could destroy the universe to find an entire new underverse. He had survived attacks from the people who had taken away everything from him twice in one lifetime, and managed to conquer them after the second attack. He had been through slam after slam after slam for as long as he could remember, some for things he had no control over and others for finally being caught for things he had done and enjoyed. But for the life of him, he was a nervous wreck when it came down to facing one man to simply ask a couple of life altering questions.

All he had to do was go up to the man and formally request Zoë's hand in marriage and what task he was to perform to prove his worth of her. However, that made his throat run dry, his mind go blank, and his nerves to get shot so he could barely think of what he was supposed to say. He had never felt so unprepared and out of sorts in his life.

* * *

Riddick walked into the Grand Receiving Hall of her father's castle on Zealion Prime with the full intent to formally request Zoë's hand in marriage, but when the King demanded that he state his business and make it fast, Riddick snapped. He decided that the worst that could happen was that he would refuse his request and he have to steal her away again to get to be with her.

Manners completely forgotten, Riddick made his request known, "I know you hate me for taking Zoë from you a couple of months past, and you're probably going to blame my very exisitance for Jaden breaking off the engagement, but I am the man Zoë loves and the man that will be able to make her happy. Therefore, I am here to formally request her hand in marriage."

"What makes you think that I would allow my daughter to marry some wayward murdering, convict?"

"Because while I may be an ex-convicted murderer, I am also the last Prince of Furya, and Zoë is the Princess meant for me.

"Every Prince of Furya born under a specific moon is gifted with an Angel-born Princess somewhere in the Universe. I was one such prince, and I am here to claim my rightful Queen."

"Let's say for the sake of argument that I actually believe this cockamamie bullshit story, what makes you think you are worth her?"

"That is for you to decide by giving me one specific task to complete. Should I complete it within the set timeframe and under the conditions you set, then I am free to marry her and take her back to my castle on Furya.

"However, should I fail, I lose all claims to her, and I forfeit my life to you to do with as you see fit."

"Fine, but what proof do you have that you are indeed a Prince and that you aren't just making this story up to get my daughter in your bed?"

Just as Riddick was about to try to explain all of this to him and get him to believe that he was a prince as well as an ex-convicted murderer, Loranna and Avalon appeared before him at his defense.

The sight of Avalon standing before him looking as she had before Zoë's birth brought the surly, sour, sardonic king to his knees before her in apology.

"Give the boy his task Lucian so he and Zoë can be married and she can begin her life the way it should have been from the beginning. She deserves to be happy even if you still blame her for my death. He is the one I had hoped would find her all along, which was why I made you promise to leave her alone as far as marriage was concerned.

"But you couldn't even do that much, could you? Instead of making her feel loved and cared for her entire life, you shunned her and made her feel like she wasn't even apart of this family, and then you went and had to try to marry her of to the first half decent prospect you could find. No offence on Jaden or you.

"It's time you showed your daughter how you really feel about her and let her live her life the way it was meant to be lived; full of love and happiness from those around her, not resent and anger from her own family."

With that they were gone, leaving behind a trembling Lucian and a smirking Riddick.

Once Lucian had regained his composure, he re-ascended his thrown and, as calmly as could be expected, thought of a suitable task for Riddick to perform for his daughter's hand in marriage.

"Very well, since you have my late wife's voucher, I'll believe you are whom you say you are and I'll decree a task for you to perform.

"For your task, you shall…"

**A/N: I know it's a cliffhanger after I've taken forever to finally update, but I'm issuing a request for all of my loyal readers, should there be any left after this sabbatical I've taken. My request is simple: Come up with a task for Riddick to have to perform.**

**Rules: No killing, cheating on Zoë, or anything that could be considered too undignified. That last rule can be broken to some degree, but the first two will be taken seriously.**

**I hope to be able to update more regularly, but for some reason I just couldn't think of anything for this chapter or anything else I was writing and then all of a sudden I was inspired so I sat down and started typing.**

**Hope you all like the new chapter and that at least some of my old readers come back to me before I finally finish the story.**

**I do promise to not completely abandon my stories, but sometimes long vacations from them are necessary in order to get the juices flowing again. Enjoy.**


	11. The Task

**Disclaimer: The only thing about this story that I own is anything you haven't already seen or read. The rest is all mine. Enjoy.**

He couldn't believe he was going through with this. It wasn't like him; none of what he had agreed to was even remotely within is character.

For starters, he had agreed to leave Xion and Serna System for another year, and to have no contact with Zoë at all. You would think that would be enough of a test for Riddick. Stay away from his woman for an entire year while meaning to stay away. Sure he'd done things like that when the circumstances rendered him incapable of getting to the people he wanted to be around, but he'd never intentionally stayed away from someone he'd fallen in love with before.

While Riddick had to stay away he had a supplementary task to perform. The idea of a task within a task was against the rules to begin with, however, given that just staying away wouldn't be proof enough of his love and loyalty to Zoë, supplementary tasks were allowed.

During his year separated from Zoë, Riddick agreed to a bodyguard/delivery boy position of sorts. Lucian told Riddick that he was to deliver a young princess back to her home world across the galaxy, a year round trip, safely return within one year from when they started. Should she become injured, through battles or fights on planet surfaces, than his mission would be considered a failure and he would lose Zoë to Jaden. However, if he returned within the year, she was delivered home without incident, and Riddick did nothing to jeopardize his relationship with Zoë, then the wedding would be held the next day.

Riddick agreed to all of his terms, fully believing that this would be nothing and that he wouldn't even need the entire year, and set out immediately with the young girl in tow.

But what he didn't know was what Lucian had in store for him.

The young princess, really just a concubine of his who was very good with her hands, would be there to attempt to seduce him into bed with her so she could report back that he couldn't be faithful to Zoë. If attempts to seduce him failed, then she was to get herself into serious trouble and either find a way to get hurt on the surface in a fight, or piss him off enough so he would lose his temper and show that he would be a liability to both her and any children they may have.

Lucian really wanted him out of the picture one way or another. And should his servant fail him, for some reason he had a feeling she would, Lucian had another plan.

Riddick had been told in secret that he was not to have any contact with Zoë while on his mission and that Zoë would be told and any questions she had Lucian would explain to her. However, Lucian had said that Riddick had promised her that he would contact her at least once a week while he was away, if only to hear her voice for a short time. Zoë asked why Riddick hadn't said this to her himself, but Lucian blew it off saying that he had left already and would contact her as soon as everything was settled.

That had never happened.

Things had started off simple enough, the journey was to be taken through relatively safe territory, with minor stops in a few of the more seedy planets for refuels and supply stock ups. The young girl, Roxanna, privately called Roxy, kept to herself as she was told in order to keep her safe, and when on route she kept to her quarters and out of the way.

But that all quickly changed after about three months in.

After Roxy finally began to feel more comfortable around Riddick and his ship, she began to explore and make her presence known just a little more. Riddick hadn't minded since it meant having something else to look at than just the empty corridors and blank bulkheads, until the seducing began.

She began to parade around in nothing more than halter tops and skimpy shorts that barely covered everything she had. When she claimed that she wanted to be of assistance around the ship, she always seemed to volunteer for the jobs that would either send her up a ladder so she'd end up falling down into his arms and claim dizzy spells, or have her bending over to reveal more of her ass. And every time Riddick caught her he could feel just how warm her body was, how soft her skin felt against his, and how endowed she really was.

It took everything Riddick had not to take her into his room and fuck her senseless. The only real saving grace he had was the memory of Zoë imbedded in the back of his mind where his dreams came from. Even after being away from her for so long, Riddick could still feel the way she felt beneath him in their dream world, still smell her very essence coating his skin from the afterglow of their first mating, and still see her as she cried out his name in pleasure.

He had no idea how much longer he would be able to hold off his urges.

"Why hasn't Riddick contacted me yet? It's been six months already and I haven't heard a single word from him. Now fathers taken ill and none of you will come to pay your respects before he passes to the next world. I would have thought at least you would come Aragorn." Zoë was beside herself with worry; both for Riddick and her father.

"I'm sure he will, he's probably just very busy taking that young Princess back to her home world. Father told me her planet had been under attack for some time now, and things were just beginning to settle down, but it was still dangerous. Have faith that everything will work out in the end the way its supposed to Zoë.

"By the way, how have you been feeling lately? Last time you said you'd been a little under the weather."

"Oh, I'm fine now. Must have been something I ate at the time. The nausea passed a couple of days after my transmission and hasn't returned since."

"Good to hear. You know I'd come, but Naomi is with child, and I can't leave and get back before she's expected to deliver. It's our first you know."

"I know. Congratulations. Send my love to Naomi, and kiss that baby when it comes. I promise to be over there just as soon as everything over here clears up. Love you, bye."

"Love you too, bye." Both kissed two fingers and placed them on each other's face on the monitor before signing off.

The next week was pure torture for Zoë. Not only did she not know when Riddick might contact her, but in both ears she had her father's frail voice and Jaden's telling her that Riddick never really loved her, that he'd run off with that other princess, and that everything he had ever told her was a lie. Zoë was so afraid anyways that Riddick had yet to even send her a transmission that she began to believe their lies more and more with each passing day.

Then it happened. Lucian called Zoë into his chambers for his final farewell to his daughter, and sole heir to the throne.

"Zoë, my beautiful Zoë, how like your mother you truly are. After her death I had blinded myself to the very idea that you were in fact your mother's daughter as a way to shield my own heart from being broken from her absence. I am truly sorry for the way I've treated you throughout your life, and hope in return you can forgive me of all of my transgressions upon you." His voice was very frail, and Zoë knew he didn't have much longer to live.

"Of course I forgive you father. I can see know that you were only hoping to do what you thought was best for me, and the Kingdom." Tears threatened to fall at every word that escaped her lips.

"There is something that, know, I believe you should be told. The task I arranged for Riddick was all a rouse to find a way to break you two apart. He was never one I had hoped you would fall for, but the heart is a very tricky thing. Your mother was the same way. Her family believed that I too was a bad match for her and tried everything in their power to break us up. But to no avail.

"I too am guilty of this with you. The girl I sent with Riddick was not in fact a princess he was returning to her home planet; she was a concubine in my service. In fact, she was the head concubine.

"Her sole purpose is to seduce Riddick into bed with her in order to prove he can't be faithful to you. And I imagine, if he's not contacted you yet, then she's probably already doing her job and keeping him very busy.

"Please forgive me? And I know it's not much in way of compensation, but I've named you my heir to the throne, as Matriarch. You can either chose to take a husband, or you have full rights to rule alone. And, because your brothers and sisters are all married off to other Kingdoms, you have a very well defined alliance base of at least five other systems.

"It may not be what you were hoping for, but at least you'll have Jaden and your brothers for support and guidance once I'm gone." His words were barely coming out as whispers by the end, and Zoë couldn't stop the torrent of tears even had she wanted to. Not only was her husband, the only man she'd ever loved, with another woman, who would be able to give him all the pleasures he'd ever wanted, on some fake marital task, but her father, while on his deathbed, had finally shown her the kind of love she'd always hoped he'd had for her, and told her the truth about a few things. It was both the happiest and worst day of her life.

As the tears finally began to dry up, Zoë looked upon the face of her father and wept again. A relaxed smile lay across his lips as his head lay at an uncomfortable angle, a sure sign that he was dead.

**A/N: I know it's kind of short, but the main things were visited, and the next chapter had even more in store. I'm hoping to give this one a happy ending, but that really just depends on my mood when it draws nearer.**


	12. Coming Home is the Hardest Thing to do

**Disclaimer: I don't own Riddick or anything related to his name, other than the other characters and places mentioned here in this story. Enjoy.**

"Get him out of my sight! I'll not tolerate the presence of traitors in my kingdom!" With that Riddick was dragged like a stunned animal out of the throne room and into a dungeon cell to await his punishment for treason to the throne.

"Just tell me what I did and I promise I'll make it right!"

"Put a bit in his mouth so no one has to hear his lies."

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"Jaden, you're my brother, tell me what happened after I left. She's acting as if I've betrayed her in some way, when all I did was that stupid task her father set before me. I even made it back a couple of days early to make sure that her father couldn't back down from his end of the deal."

"Lucian told her all about the 'task' that he gave you. How she wasn't really a princess from that other world, and how she was supposed to be seducing you the entire time. When you never contacted her, she assumed that you were too busy with her father's head concubine to remember that you had a wife waiting back here for you to call her and tell her that everything would be alright.

"So, I imagine that she probably feels betrayed by you and your inability to remain faithful to her for any extended period of time.

"Now that her father has passed on from the illness that overtook his body during your 'task', Zoë has been crowned Matriarch and has been given the power to rule this system alone, with an alliance base of at least six other systems; two brothers, three sisters, and my own." Jaden straightened up to look down at his older brother with pure smugness dripping off of his aura.

"Nothing happened! There is nothing in the universe that could possibly make me so much as want to do anything to jeopardize what I have with Zoë."

"Correction… What you had with Zoë. As of now, you are a traitor to the throne, your doomed to rot down here in this luxurious dungeon cell because she knows that would be the worst possible torture for you, and I've been working my way into her heart since her father died, and am about to proposed to her so our alliance will be even stronger. You lose big brother."

Riddick tried to rip the chains from the wall, but the adrenaline that coursed through his system couldn't compare to the exhaustion draining his very essence. At most he was able to make an effort to strangle Jaden, but didn't get anywhere near his neck.

"You know she belongs with me Jaden, so why are you doing this?" Riddick had settled back down to the ground, doing his best to remain in a calm demeanor so rational thought would take back over.

"Because you don't deserve her or her love. The only thing you deserve is a dark cell and a bit in your mouth." Malice oozed from his words as he practically spit them at Riddick.

"What makes you think I don't deserve her?"

"Because, big brother, she doesn't deserve the shit you've put her through, and will inevitably cause for her. She belongs with the man who can give her every happiness in the universe and make her feel like she is the most important person in his life.

"She has been the only reason for my existence since the day of my birth. Can you say the same thing? Or were there too many others for you to remember what your destiny was supposed to be?"

"That's not fair. You got to grow up safe and protected, where I've had to take care of myself all of my life. I've done things to survive that I'm not proud of, and there have been those that have passed through my life, but that doesn't make Zoë any less important to me.

"I love her, and I know she still loves me. Nothing you do or say will change that fact. And I will get her back."

"Riddick, the only chance you have of getting her back now is if you can prove to her beyond a shadow of a doubt that you love her and will never allow anything to happen to her. And since you're locked up down here, I don't see that happening before she becomes my bride and queen."

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A week passed by with Riddick held in sensory deprivation: a bit in his mouth, a blindfold around his eyes, and plugs in his ears. He was treated like nothing more than a caged animal, even by the only person who still loved him.

Zoë came down to the dungeons everyday after the sensory deprivation had begun to make sure he hadn't begun to go insane. She would simply sit in the room and watch him and he breathed through the bit, or she would talk to him even though she knew that he would never be able to hear her let alone answer the questions she posed for him. The entire process was neurotic at best, but oddly therapeutic for the young queen. She could yell at him for everything that he had done to her or that other people had pissed her off for, and she wouldn't get any comments that would sound plagiarized and overused.

But what she didn't realize was that Riddick knew the moment that she entered the room every time. She had a truly unique scent that Riddick could still pick up, even with the horrid smells that assaulted his senses. The one thing they hadn't cut off from him was his keen sense of smell, so he knew when Zoë was angry, frustrated, sad, or even happy. So, it didn't matter that he never heard her words he knew, relatively, what she was saying or where she was while in the room. And no matter how angry or frustrated he sensed her to be, he could always feel the warmth radiating off of her; the warmth that let him know that he was still loved by the angel standing before him. And that's all he needed to get him through this ordeal.

On the final day of his deprivation, Zoë boldly approached the gorgeously chained man before her and stroked his head ever so gently as she said, "Tomorrow I will hear your side of the story, and see if what you have to say adds up with the facts that I have found to be true. I love you, and hope for your sake that you do not lie to me, for it will cost you your life."

'I swear, I'll do anything it takes to win you back.'

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"There have been new developments concerning your case, and I am now ready to hear what you have to say for yourself. After hearing your side, I will make my decision on whether or not to kill you for treason to the throne." Zoë stood before him in magnificent splendor. She looked every bit the part of a queen, and Riddick found himself at a complete lose for words.

"The Queen brings you up from the lowly dungeons to give you a chance to explain your actions, and you waste her time gawking at her. How dare you…," Jaden was doing his best to sound as if he had any standing in Zoe's court, but Riddick knew better.

"I'm not gawking at her Jaden; I'm merely gazing upon the very picture of perfection. I have been too long with only the memory of her face, and my image has begun to fuzz beyond recognition. I would not dare waste the time of so perfect a being.

"But something tells me that no matter what I tell her Majesty, she has already made a decision on what my life is to entail, so I am deciding whether I should waste the courts' time with a tale that will only fall on deaf ears." Riddick knew that no one here would listen to what he had to say, and even if Zoë where going to hold off on her decision until after he had finished, everyone else in the room would just confuse the facts when he said something against their story.

"If you don't tell me your side of the story now, than you won't get another chance, and regardless of the new facts I have found out, I will make my decision as if nothing new had been presented. Do you wish to take that chance?" 'Come on Riddick… just tell me what really happened on that ship for the trip to Mayona 6 and I can make all of this go away, and take you back without losing face.'

"I will gladly tell you anything you wish to know, but I will only talk to you, your majesty. I fear that anything I have to tell you, your advisors will poison you against and will therefore influence your decision. And I doubt my life can handle influence from them. Might I speak alone with the Queen?"

Zoë knew this couldn't be a good idea, but she had to hear what had happened between the concubine and her husband from his lips. If she had to be alone with him for him to tell her, than she was willing to put her self control to the test.

"Guards, take him to my chambers, undo the shackles, and post guards at every known exit so he can't escape. I will hear his side of everything in private, and make my decision after. No one here will argue with me on any part of my decision, or you'll spend a few nights in the deep dungeons. Am I understood?" Zoë looked about the room with a glare that promised all that she threatened and more for those that defied her orders.

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Deep blues and greens, and vibrant silver flooded Zoë's room. The walls and bed curtains were of the deepest blue; almost black, the window dressings and the floor were such a seductively dark green that they too almost appeared black; at first glance, and the actual blankets, and the majority of the furniture were such a vibrant silver that they appeared white.

Once the shock had worn off, right about the time Zoë walked into the room, and the doors were closed, Riddick rounded on Zoë, picked her up round the waist and slammed here against the wall next to the doors. Running completely off animal instincts, Riddick melded his body into Zoë's as he crushed his lips on hers in a mind-blowing, earth-shattering kiss.

Zoë could feel all of his passion pouring into her through the kiss, and his dick nearly breaking through all of their clothes trying to dive deep into her body. She lifted one of her legs to wrap around his waist to allow for better contact, but remembered all too suddenly why he was here in her chambers now, after having been gone from him for so long. So, instead of wrapping her leg around his waist, she swept her leg underneath his and landed him on the ground flat on his back. He reached out to pull her to the ground with him, but Zoë let her wings free and took flight before he had a chance, and landed clear across the room.

"You were brought in here to tell me your side of the events, not attack me! So Start Talking!"

Riddick got up from the floor and began to walk around the room, doing what he did best; stalking his prey and keeping them off balance. "You already know the task that your father placed before me: to take the young princess from here to her home world, without incident, and return here in under a year or I would have to forfeit my claim to marry you. However, before I was to depart, your father placed an additional task before me: not to have any contact with you for the entire time I was away.

"His belief was that just having to stay away for a year wasn't enough of a task, so not being able to talk to you, or look at you over to vid-com was to be more of a test for me. But he promised that he would tell you what was going on, because he was sending me off immediately."

Zoë scoffed at his explanation so far. It seemed that her father had been lying to her from the beginning; not that it surprised her much.

"While we were on the ship, I'll admit there were times that I was tempted to give in to her seductions, but the very thought of hurting you and destroying the trust you had in me kept me from doing more than thinking about it.

"It wasn't even until I had delivered her to the palace just before the six month mark that she told me that I was the first man to ever control myself around her, and that I was likely to end up ruining her reputation as a concubine.

"I swear absolutely nothing happened between me and that girl! Hell! She didn't even so much as get a scratch on her body while she was under my care. I did my task as issued by your father and a week sooner than allotted.

"If you don't believe me, you can even contact the girl. She swore that she would back me up if there were any problems."

The entire time Riddick was talking, keeping Zoë's attention on him instead of on the fact that they were walking circles around the bed, Riddick getting closer and closer to her as he maneuvered them closer to the bed. Now he had her about a foot from the edge of the bed, and he was close enough to her that he could see the tiny sparkles in her eyes as she processed what he'd just told her.

"So, does the Queen believe her lowly subject, or should I get my affairs in order?" His hands went to her hips, hoping that she would respond positively and not push him away.

Zoë looked away from him for a split second, looking down in a mock submission stance, and Riddick pushed his luck even further by throwing her fully on the bed and landing on top of her with another earth-shattering kiss.

She responded by wrapping her legs around his waist and Riddick stopped thinking.

**A/N: Another chapter finally finished! Sorry it's taken me so long to get this finished, but there have been so many other things weighing on my mind and heart lately. But now that things are getting better in the real world, my little fantasy worlds are finally getting some attention.**

**Hope you enjoyed, even though I cliff hung the good stuff.**


	13. A Night Worth Remembering

**Disclaimer: We all know the story. If you already knew about it before you read this story then I didn't come up with it, but I did borrow it for this story. Enjoy.**

The animal in him said, "Rip off her clothes and ravish her body until neither of you can move again!" The more human side said, "Take it slow and make her beg to cum." But which side would be the better to listen to?

She had had him down in that dungeon waiting for a chance to tell his side of the story, waiting on whether or not she was going to have him killed before he'd even have a chance to really feel her in his arms as a husband and wife should be. 'Make her wait. Make her beg to cum. Make her sorry she ever doubted your loyalty to her.'

But then again, he'd had to be away from her for a full year. They had married within the Dream Realm, legally within Furian customs, and he'd had to go perform some idiotic task for her father to prove that he truly deserved Zoë. 'You've had to wait long enough. She's been here alone for a year now, waiting as patiently as a young bride can. Forego the niceties for just the first time and have your wild, wicked way with her. Ravish her body and make her understand who the true alpha of this relationship is.'

But I ask you now: Can there truly be any love between two people; no matter how destined they are to be with each other, if there is no real trust between them?

'She didn't trust in you. She couldn't get past all of the lies they were feeding her, didn't even try too see them for what they were.'

"Do you love me Zoë?"

Such a simple question… and a truly simple answer should have flowed from her mouth, yet…

"Why did you suddenly stop to ask me that? What would make you think that I didn't?" Zoë was utterly stunned. She knew she should have just answered him in the affirmative, yet her brain and heart began to fight and she could only draw evasive questions in place of a simple yes.

"Why can't you just answer me then?" While looking down into her eyes, Riddick realized that there wasn't a sparkle in her eyes like there had been a year ago. Instead, all he could see was a suppressed fear.

Riddick reluctantly got off of Zoë and held out a hand to help her up off the bed. "Why are you stopping? I thought this was what you wanted from me?"

"Only if you love me. I asked to tell you my side of the story, and you have it. Whether or not you believe me is another story. I'll wait for you to make your decision on my life, Your Majesty." A gentle peck on the cheek was his goodbye as he left the room so she could ponder what he'd just told her.

'He's leaving me?! He's actually going to fucking leave me here after he got me all hot and bothered!' "What the fuck is going on here?! You had me in the palm of your hand and now you're going to leave me here with nothing more than a fucking peck on the cheek! Who the hell are you and what did you do with Riddick?"

"Like I said only if you love me. I'll not be with a woman who doesn't love me, even if we are destined to be together. I came back to get my wife and start our lives together, not be treated like some common stray, being kicked around and abused just because he looks like he can take it. I am a Furian Prince, and I expect to be treated as such, Your Majesty."

Riddick turned to walk out the door again, but as he reached for the doorknob Zoë forcefully spun him around to face her again. "If you walk out that door, you'll never have me in your bed again."

Riddick glared at her, those glares he'd given people he was about to kill, and she didn't so much as flinch.

"When I called you up from the dungeons today I already knew the full story, I was just checking to see if you would give me the same version. I couldn't take a chance that maybe she was just trying to cover for you.

"You know how my father was around me. He treated me like the red-headed step-child he never wanted. So, when he finally seemed to be showing the kind of emotions I'd always dreamed of receiving from him, I soaked it in, and blindly believed everything that he told me.

"I know that I should have only believed the best from you, but my entire world had just been turned upside down, and I'm still trying to find my footing. I really do want you here with me, in every aspect."

"I don't give a shit what you want, Your Majesty. The only thing in the fucking universe that I have ever given a damn about is whether or not I was worthy of your love, and if I'd be able to keep you in love with me. As far as I'm concerned, if you don't love me, then there's nothing keeping me here."

Zoë grabbed Riddick's face in her tiny hands and pulled his attention back to her. "I do love you Riddick. Nothing has happened to change that. And nothing ever will."

That was all the encouragement Riddick needed from her.

He pulled Zoë into his arms, as close as their bodies could get without actually being joined together, and crushed his lips to hers in a mind numbing kiss.

Pouring all of his emotions into her body through the kiss, he washed away all of her doubts and the last year having had to be away from her for so long.

Riddick lifted off of the ground into his arms and carried over to the bed where he proceeded to lavish her body with all of the kisses and caresses that they'd been dreaming of. He took every opportunity to memorize her body, from her head to her toes.

He was taking it slow, yet not slow enough to make her beg. If he had had the restraint necessary to torture her long enough, he would have. However, seeing as how he was gagging for it just as much as she was, he couldn't wait much more to finally be inside of her.

After ripping off her clothes he began on her breasts. Generously attending to each breast with kisses, suckles, and messages, Riddick had Zoë on the edge making moaning sounds the entire time that where driving him crazy.

When she started rubbing her body against his in order to entice him to attend to other areas, Riddick trailed kisses down through the center of her breasts, over her belly, and down to her naval. Once there, he noticed that her entire body was a shade darker than it had been only moments ago. Keeping to that area, Riddick looked up her body to try and catch her eyes as he asked, "Do you trust me?"

Zoë looked down at him and simply replied, "Yes."

Riddick smiled to himself as he spread her legs apart and injected a finger deeply into her folds to test her wetness, and was rewarded with a gasp of surprise from his wife. As he removed his finger from within her, he made sure she was looking at him before he took the finger into his mouth and sucked it clean right in front of her.

Her entire body shuddered at the display, and Riddick dived head first between her legs. This time he plunged two fingers within her and spread her folds open wider as he dipped his tongue as deep as it would go.

He allowed it to play around within her, lapping up her juices and creating more as he continued his actions. After her first orgasm, Riddick decided that now he could have his own release.

While she was still writhing from the shockwave he positioned himself at her entrance and thrust home.

She cried out, an ear splitting scream of pain from unbelievable pleasure. He stayed still within her for a few moments to allow her body to stretch to accommodate his girth.

When he body relaxed and she began to grind against him, Riddick clued in that he had free reign to make her cum again, and he fully planned to do it.

The pace was slow at first with long strokes to create the needed friction for their releases. As the friction began to build, the strokes got shorter and more frequent. Finally, Riddick was pounding forcefully into her body with fast short strokes.

Their bodies were dripping with sweat and they were panting heavily trying to regain their breathes, but never getting the needed amount of oxygen.

Finally, just when Zoë was about to orgasm again, Riddick slowed the pace back down in order to prolong the experience. Only, Zoë wasn't going to have any of that.

Breathily, Zoë asked, "Why are you slowing down? I was about to cum."

"Sorry, but I'm getting tired and I didn't want to crash before we both came. I'm a little out of practice."

A brilliant idea popped into Zoë's mind at that moment. She hooked her leg around Riddick's and spun them both over so she was on top. "Then I'll take over while you rest."

He would have protested the idea of being beneath her, but the idea of having his wife riding his dick to both of their climaxes suddenly seemed like a great idea.

He grabbed onto her hips to help guide her movements; lifting her so she could slam back down on his dick fully, rotating her hips for the optimal effect of their position, and messaging her breasts again once she began to understand what he wanted her to do up there.

When her legs began to get tired of that position, she leaned down closer to Riddick and propped herself up against his chest as she continued her grinding. With the change in angle cam a change in stimulation, and Zoë began to pound even harder and faster onto Riddick from the sheer pleasure her body was in.

He could feel her getting closer to climax and knew that he wouldn't be much farther behind her. More afraid that she wouldn't be able to continue riding him trough his orgasm as well as her own, Riddick flipped them both over and took control again just in time for her to start screaming from yet another orgasm.

He pounded into her body with animal fury as her vagina milked his cock for all it was worth.

As the shockwave finally began to subside, Zoë's body relaxed and her wings burst worth in all their glory, like a great white cloak in the wind. Zoë collapsed from exhaustion onto Riddick's chest and her wings gently wrapped around their bodies to keep them from getting cold once they cooled off enough from their activities.

Once it was all over and neither of their bodies could take any more stimulation, they lay there in each other's arms and passed out.

**A/N: I am truly sorry for the delay in this chapter, but it has taken me this long to get myself out of the corner I had written myself in. When I got to a certain part of this chapter I could no longer see where it was headed, but I have finally found it. I just hope you can all forgive me and that you all enjoy the latest chapter.**


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